The Six Orbs
by Mr Ymous
Summary: An Adventure story dealing with an organisation trying to gain the powers of Six Orbs to succeed in their plans. A young Bounty Hunter and his team must solve the mystery of the ancients, with the help of familiar faces, whilst confronting a painful past.
1. Chapter 1

"_Alright, you have a ninety second gap in the patrols, make your move," _A soft male voice said over Alex's earpiece.

"Alright, making my move… now," Alex replied, and he dropped to the floor from the air vent he had been hiding in. He pushed himself up, his long brown hair bouncing slightly, his wrap around glasses reflecting the artificial light. He slid over the door, touching the top of his sunglasses as he did so. Inside, the glasses scanned the door, the details popping up around it in green writing, certain areas highlighted and other areas were increased in focus.

"It's a triple glass plate steel bolt mechanism," Alex muttered into his cheek mike, "I won't have enough time to pick this. Gallade! Need your psychic on this door lock, stat!"

The swordsman Pokémon dropped down next to Alex, its elbow blades extended. Its red eyes glowed for a few seconds, and then there were three loud clunks and the three bolts slid out of the doorframe.

"Alright, maybe next time I should give you a challenge," Alex said, pushing the door open slightly, "Lucario, we need you to clear the room for us!"

The Aura Pokémon landed next to Gallade and closed its eyes, using its aura to detect and signs of life. It soon opened its eyes and nodded at Alex.

"Big Momma, this is baby bird, mission is a go, and we do have coffee," Alex said into his cheek mike.

"_What are you on Alex?_" the male voice asked, the sound of humour playing on his slightly annoyed tone, "_I'm pleased you can still have your humour on missions like these, but you have ten seconds until the next patrol. Get your arses into that room!_"

Alex, Lucario and Gallade dived into the room and Alex pushed the door closed, making it look like it hadn't been tempered with. The only problem now was it was pitch black. Alex reached up and tapped the side of his glasses, and suddenly, they showed up in the eerie green glow of night vision.

"Alright gang," Alex muttered, "We need to find the package." Lucario and Gallade nodded. Gallade was sensing its surroundings with its psychic, and Lucario was using its Aura. Alex could have used his own aura, but it was an energy drainer.

"_It should be in the centre of the room, in some form of protective case,_" the male voice said into his ear. Alex looked towards the centre of the room, and sure enough, there was a rather large metallic pole, from floor to ceiling. The only thing that was odd was that there was a number pad on it.

"Okay Brandon," Alex said, "It looks like a simple code lock. I'm going to use a light for this."

"_The code should be a simple 4555-9876,_" Brandon said, "_You only have another ninety seconds until your escape window opens_"

"We'll be gone by then," Alex smiled, tapping his glasses twice on the leg, so the night vision turned off and a pen light popped out of the arm, lighting up the area he was looking at. He punched in the code, and with a soft hiss, the pole opened in the middle, moving apart from each other only a little way. What it held within was nothing more than a memory stick.

"Well, that's not much of a prize," Alex said, picking the stick up and looking at it in the light, "Ah well, beggars can't be choosers, let's get outta here." Lucario and Gallade nodded in agreement, and they both headed towards the door. Alex turned off the light and slid over to the door also.

"Wait! I almost forgot," He moved back over to the open pole, and slipped a small coin where the flash drive once was. "Couldn't forget that,"

"_Alex, thirty seconds,_"

"Yeah yeah, I know," Alex muttered. He and the two Pokémon snuck out into the hall way and clambered back into the air vent, not before Gallade re-sealed the door with another soft clunk. A slow crawl later, the air vent went vertical. A piece of rope was dangling in the middle of it. Gallade and Lucario climbed up it, followed by Alex, all the way to the roof.

Alex clambered out of the Air vent, to see a black Charizard standing in front of the vent entrance, its tail blazing. Alex returned Galled to its poke ball as Lucario climbed onto Charizard's back.

"Charizard, take off," Alex said, "I'll catch you in the dive." Charizard flapped its wings and with a roar, dived off the edge of the sky scraper. Alex ran forward, drawing a silver Desert Eagle pistol from a back holster, and he jumped over the edge.

Alex counted the floors that were going past, until about the twenty-first floor he shot past he snapped his gun up, and diving head first past the window, made the shot. The bullet left the gun, smashed through the window, and made its journey to the fire alarm system. As soon as it hit the alarm, the bullet disintegrated, and the alarm went off. Alex holstered his pistol, and Charizard pulled alongside him. Alex manoeuvred over to it and crouched on its back. Charizard spread its wings and they pulled out of the dive, flying away from the lone skyscraper in the middle of the mountain range.


	2. Chapter 2

The flight was a silent one under the blanket of stars, the only thing to be heard was the beating of the great fire lizards' wings. Lucario was sitting cross legged on Charizard's neck, whilst Alex was sat on its back, looking over the flash drive.

"What do you contain, my little beauty?" Alex muttered, turning it over and over in his hands. Lucario opened one of his eyes and looked at Alex, before giving a gruff grunt. "What you mean, I was careless?"Alex asked, sounding slightly hurt, "That mission was nothing like the one in Mount Moon. And that was one I was careless in."

Lucario stared at Alex for a while with one eye, and then it smiled and let out a laugh. It closed its eyes again, and went back to its meditation. Alex shook his head and smiled to himself. Lucario always seemed to like winding him up. Charizard let out a sudden roar, and Alex stuffed the flash drive back into a pocket on his brown jacket. Charizard pulled into a steep dive, and soon, he was heading to a small clearing next to a river. Alex crouched on his back, and once Charizards' feet had touched the ground, he jumped off, along with Lucario. He returned the Flame lizard to its pokéball, and walked over to a figure hunched over on a boulder.

"Hello there Brandon," Alex said. The figure stood up, showing him to be slightly taller than Alex, with short brown hair, an orange long sleeve top and brown chinos.

"Alex," Brandon said in his soft, yet deep voice, "I was wondering when you would get back here. I've been doing constant scans of the area, and I managed to track your process," He pointed to what he had been bending over. It was a laptop screen, with a radar system showing on the screen, "Everything else has been silent for the past few hours."

"Alright, then now is a good time to download the data," Alex said, handing Brandon the Flash drive, "Then we can give it to our client." There was a ringing noise in his ear, and a phone symbol flashed up on his glasses with a caller ID. "Ah, looks like Joey is bored again," Alex sighed, and taped his ear piece, "Kiddo, what's up?"

"_Alex!_" The boy at the end of the phone sounded happy and bubbly, "_When are you and Brandon going to get back? I'm bored as hell, and I've done everything on the list you left me._"

"Everything?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow, "Including the training tasks I set you?"

"_Yes…_" Joey said, but Alex could tell he was lying, the yes was too drawn out.

"Well, I suggest you actually do the training mister, or how will you be able to come out on exercises with Brandon and I?" Alex said, "We should be back in a few days, we just have to get to the train station now."

"_Alright,_" Joey sighed on the end of the phone, "_Oh, yeah, Alex, I saw it again today._"

"You saw what again today?" Alex asked

"_The Shadow!_" Joey exclaimed excitedly, "_It was outside in the clearing. It circled the house once, then moved back into the forest!_"

"I'll take a look when I get back," Alex said, "Now you better get to bed so you can train tomorrow," Alex said sternly. Suddenly, there was another beep, and a small window opened on the screen of his glasses, showing small radar, and there was a mass of dots forming around Brandon's and His position. He waved frantically and Brandon, who looked up from his laptop confused.

Light suddenly filled the clearing and the buzzing of helicopter blade blasted into the area. Alex automatically ended the call to Joey, and Brandon leapt up, closing his laptop lid, reaching for his belt.

"_FREEZE_!" A voice boomed into the clearing, "_Or we will take you by force!_"

"Alex…" Brandon called out, looking at him with a slight worried look on his face.

"Working on it," Alex yelled over the wind and the helicopter blades. He closed his eyes, and allowed his aura to kick in. He saw the world in a blue light, with only the outlines of the helicopters and the non living creatures, including the trees. The living creatures however, which were only him, Brandon, Lucario and the hundred people surrounding them were light up in a blue light, the light dark on the outside, but turning white in the centre of their body. Alex opened his eyes and looked at Lucario by his side. He was in a fighting stance, the blue flames of his aura covering his body.

"The only way out of this, is conflict," Alex yelled to Brandon, "Hand to hand, little mercy. You ready for that?"

"Yes," Came Brandon's reply, but before he could even give a command, there was a gunshot, and Brandon suddenly collapsed, a small dart in his neck.

_Shit! They've just drugged him!_ Alex's mind was in overdrive. _That means that they want us alive, or they would have shot us already. We can get out of this._

He looked at Lucario. "Ready for some action?" Lucario growled in eagerness. "Alright, Extreme speed, and follow it up with a metal claw, go!" Alex yelled.

Lucario shot off the mark, white light trailing behind him as he ripped the sound barrier, his aura pushing him forward, his feet just occasionally pushing on the ground; the spikes on the back of his hands glowed and formed three claws on each paw. There were the sound of gunshots, but Lucario just crossed his arms in front of him, the drug darts bouncing off the metal claw.

"Lucario, take out that Helicopter!" Alex roared, as he dodged yet another dart, pulling out his own pistol and firing a few shots into the darkness around the blindly lit clearing. Lucario heard him and jumped, the power and speed of the extreme speed move propelled the aura Pokémon towards the hovering Black Hawk.

He stopped just below the spinning blades, and with a sly smile to the pilot, used his metal claw to rip the rear blade to shreds in one sweep. The Helicopter span out of control, the balance lost with the destruction of the stabilizing rotor blade. Lucario landed with a smug smile on his knees and one hand. He stood up, only to feel a drug dart hit his neck. Darkness covered his vision, and he hit the floor. He blacked out a second later.

Alex saw Lucario go down, and a fury boiled up in him. He charged towards the surrounding men, firing his pistol at them, most of the shots hitting their targets. No sooner was he in range, he holstered his pistol and flicked his hands, causing his aura to start covering them. He jumped into the middle of the ranks and started striking out with swift punches, causing men to go down left and right. One of them managed to get him into a head lock, but Alex got out of it with ease and threw him through the arriving re-enforcements.

Suddenly Alex felt a stabbing pain in his neck, and he slowly looked around to see a syringe there. He felt his aura evaporate, along with his strength. He fell to his knees, and then the mob around him pounced on him. Alex was out cold before the first man tackled him to the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

"Alex…" The voice cut into Alex's sleep. Alex tried to push it out. He was just so tired. He needed to recharge his aura.

"Alex…" The voice said again. Alex grimaced as he suddenly felt himself in a sitting position, his arms and legs feeling bound together, heavy. Alex slipped back into sleep again.

"ALEX!" The voice sounded angry. Alex opened one of his eyes slowly. He saw a blur of white, unnatural, harsh light. His head suddenly split into an ache he had never felt before. He groaned with the pain.

"Alex, the sooner you open your eyes, the sooner the pain will stop," The voice said, "The headache will disperse quicker." Alex opened his eyes again, and blinked. The room snapped into focus. It was a large conference room, with a long wooden table, a projector screen and white walls. The brightness told him someone had removed his sun glasses. Suddenly, Alex remembered what had been going on. He looked around quickly.

The quick movement caused a rustling all around the room. Alex suddenly realised that there were masked men, standing shoulder to shoulder, all of them holding rifles, all of the barrels now pointing at him. Alex looked at the magazine clips, which were large, bulky. Too large to be ordinary bullet clips.

"Easy Alex," Brandon's voice said from his right, "We can't escape this one." Alex turned around to see Brandon looking at the presentation board at the other end of the room. Like him, he was bound to a chair by chains, but only his wrists and ankles were chained, unlike the whole of Alex's body, which was chained to the chair.

"I would listen to your friend," A deep voice boomed out, "He is ever so wise." It came from a rather bulky man at the end of the room. He wore a black suit, grey shirt with no tie. His brown hair was combed over, and his blue eyes sparkled dangerously. Alex didn't bother to try and retort, he was still exhausted from using his aura.

"Where are my Pokémon? Where is Lucario?" Alex asked, knowing he was beat.

"Your pokéballs are fine, and your blue friend is asleep as we speak" The large mean replied, "I am planning on giving them back to you, however, I must ask two favours from you, Alex and Brandon, in return."

"How do you know our names?" Alex questioned, his face falling into a frown.

"I know Alex," the large man laughed, "Rule four of yours has been broken. _No names_. A classic rule. One of your twelve rules right?"Alex's face gave away his shocked feelings, "I know Alex, it's scary, someone else knows about you."

The large man pulled out a chair from the table and sat down, facing them, his hands resting on his knuckles. "So tell me Brandon, How does a man of twenty one get involved with a Teenager of eighteen years?"

"That's none of your business," Brandon growled.

"Hmmm, interesting," The man said, his gaze swivelling to Alex, "And now to the interesting person himself, Alex. An eighteen year old and already a world renowned Bounty Hunter,"

"I'm not a Bounty Hunter," Alex spat, "I'm a guy doing jobs for cash, whether it be-"

"Transportation, Retrieval, Recon or Protection. TRRP," The man laughed, "So in other words, where ever the money takes you. So you are indeed, a Bounty Hunter, you hunt the money."

"No I do not," Alex yelled.

"And what makes you so different from these Bounty Hunters, to which you claim you do not belong?"

"You will have to figure that one out yourself."

"Ooo, a smart mouth here," the man looked around the guards, "Well, if you don't want a deal, and to be left here till you rot, then be my guest. I only asked for two simple little favours."

"What might they be?" Brandon asked, raising an eyebrow

"That you a) watch this presentation, and b) you take me on as your client," The large me said, his face not giving away any emotion.

"Alright," Alex said.

"But Alex," Brandon began. Alex cut across him.

"He's won Brandon. He holds the trump card here, and we have nothing," he turned to his friend, "We may as well see what this is about, and the guards aren't armed to kill us. It is as if he needs us."

"Alright Alex, but," Brandon began, is face darkening, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"So, you agree to my demands?" The man asked. Brandon and Alex nodded their heads, however, they both shot the man s look of loathing, trying to show no respect towards him what so ever. The man nodded to a guard by the door, and the lights went down. There was a whirl as a projector was turned on, and an image of six Pokémon appeared on the board.

"I am sure you are aware of these six here," The man said. Alex and Brandon didn't reply. "Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina. Water, Land, Air, Time, Space, Antimatter. These six represent the very things that make this world turn."

"As I'm sure your aware, long ago, humans created orbs to try and control these magnificent beasts, but after a while, strife ripped through every human heart, and soon the beasts became weapons of war. In the end, the humans only moved themselves further from controlling them." He nodded, and the slide changed. This time, it showed six orbs. One red, one blue, one green, on a smooth pearl, one a clear diamond, the other a distorted amber.

"These images are of such said orbs, and artists' impression, apart from the last three." He pointed to the pearl, diamond and amber orbs. "The place you took that flash drive," he nodded at Alex and Brandon, "was a research centre on how to summon these creatures. They were planning to use them to control these elements. I however, plan to use them to prevent humans from ever getting their hands on them again."

Alex raised an eyebrow, but thought better of voicing his doubts, especially with the gun barrel only a metre from his neck.

"All I ask you to do is find and collect these items, and bring them to me. You can even witness me destroy them if you so wish, so humans may never again, suffer greed."

Alex glanced and Brandon. His eyes were closed, deep in thought. Alex thought too. He knew this man was faking it. The soft chuckle from the guard behind him had given it away. But, there was no way he could escape.

"Alright," Alex said after a while. Brandon hung his head, as he knew that this was the only way out too. The man in the suit smiled.

"Brilliant. And one more thing, I have a new recruit for you." Brandon and Alex looked up. The door opened and a 17 year old girl walked through, wearing baggy commando trousers, black army boots, a green tank top which hugged her curvy frame, her long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, and her green eyes shined for adventure. On her back was a commando backpack, along with an ammo belt.

"Tara Repins reporting." She said, standing to attention.


	4. Chapter 4

The thumping of the blades of the black hawk drummed into Alex's ears. He was sitting next to the doorway, facing backwards, letting the wind blow his hair around. Across from him sat Brandon, who was nursing his neck where the drug dart had hit him. Tara was sitting to Alex's right, her ponytail blowing in the breeze. She was cleaning four pokéballs with a cloth, her military commando bag at her feet. Lucario was sitting crossed legged in front of Alex, his eyes closed, but Alex could feel him scanning the area with his Aura. Like his master, Lucario didn't like the new girl.

"So," She yelled above the helicopter blades, "Who are you guys?" Alex snorted and looked out of the door. "What's so funny?"

"He doesn't mean anything," Brandon said, leaning forward in his seat, "I'm Brandon, Communication and research expert. He's-"

"She already knows," Alex cut in, not looking away from the sunrise sky, "She's read all our files from that creep of a client."

"He's Alex," Brandon said, with a frown on his face. He shook his head and turned back to Tara, "So, tell us a little more about yourself."

Tara put down the pokéball she was polishing and looked up at Brandon. "Well, I'm Tara, trained by the Territory Guards, regiment 104," Alex turned and looked at her, his eyebrow raised slightly, "I passed into the regiment, but it wasn't what I had hoped. There was too little adventure. I left, and joined Team Legion. Now I've been transferred to help you on this quest."

"By help, you mean spy," Alex snorted. Tara turned to face him. There was a cold fire in her eyes that nearly made Alex recoil.

"It is as I said, I was transferred to help you, not to spy, or hinder," Tara replied coolly, "You are only putting yourself back by not trusting me."

"Trust," snorted Alex, "What good is trust if it leads to betrayal?" Lucario growled in agreement.

"Excuse me," Tara said, shaking her head and standing up, but Lucario was up, eyes open, and an aura sphere formed in his palm, ready to strike Tara if she took a step towards Alex.

"You speak bitterly of trust," Tara said with a hint of wonder in her angered voice, "And yet you can trust your safety in Lucario here. Why?"

"Because," Alex replied, "Pokémon are always loyal. Never once have I had on betray me. They are different to humans. They can sense who they can trust, and who will trust them back. Humans are blind to that."

Tara eyed Lucario. He hadn't moved and the aura sphere was still in the palm of his hand. Brandon had just bowed his head during this. Eventually, when Lucario had stood up, he had to intervene.

"Tara, I'd sit down if I were you," he said quietly.

"Why?"

"Well, for starters, I don't think you want to be blasted out of the helicopter at this height, and second of all, we're gonna bank around Mount Silver in a second."

Sure enough, Mount silver appeared on the left hand side, sliding past the open door, the east side covered in a light pink glow. The Helicopter banked sharply to the left, Brandon and Tara reached up to hold the hand straps above them. Alex let gravity take its course he slid off his seat into a standing position. He stuck his head into the cockpit.

"Mr Pilot sir," Alex yelled, "This is our stop, keep banking, I'm gonna need the run up." The pilot nodded, not taking his eyes off the dials in front of him. Alex plucked a pokéball off his belt and opened it. The white light shot out of the helicopter, and his Black Charizard was soon flying alongside it. Alex stepped down the gradient, to pause in front of Tara. He gave her a blank look, and then turned, sprinting the length of the cargo area, and leaped out of the Black Hawk. His shouts of joy could be heard as he fell towards his Charizard. Lucario gave Tara a deadly stare, and then he too, jumped out of the right hand side, falling towards Alex and Charizard.

"Why?" Tara asked Brandon, as he pulled out a pokéball himself and opened it on the left side.

"Because, he doesn't want the place of our main base to be known," Brandon said, as his Dragonite appeared, "So you will also have to ride with me. And Pilot, once we leave, that will be all. Thanks." The Pilot just grunted in acknowledgement. Brandon slide out of the helicopter and beckoned Tara to join him. Tara jumped out of the helicopter, bags and all. The Pokémon roared and sped forwards, the helicopter banking away from the mountain, returning to the base it was sent from.

Brandon soon caught sight of Alex; he was busy commanding Charizard to spin. Brandon smiled. Alex was always training. Soon, after flying around Mount silver, there was a clearing to be seen in the trees in the valley below. Alex had already made a dive for it, and so Dragonite followed suit.

Soon, the two flying Pokémon touched down on the ground. No sooner had they done so, a large figure rose from within the darkness of the woods to the left of them. Tara instinctively jumped down from the Dragonite, reaching back to pull a pokéball from her back…

"Metagross, Chill dude!" Alex called, jumping down from Charizard and walking towards the figure. The figure stopped for a second, and then charged out of the woods. Alex was knocked backwards, and a white and gold Metagross stood over him, triumph in its red eyes. "Get off me ya great lump," Alex chuckled, sliding out from under him, "I see you're doing some training, is Joey doing it with you?"

Metagross shook its head, and Alex sighed. "I bet he isn't even out of bed yet." He took out his other pokéball and released Gallade. Gallade stretched, and then yawned. No sooner had it done that, he opened his eyes and extended his blade elbows, looking around.

"Gallade, you can relax," Brandon called, jumping off his Dragonite, "We're home."

"This is Home?" Tara asked. Gallade and Metagross turned to stare at her, as if they had only just noticed her there. Metagross got into a low gravity position, stomping his feet as he did so. Gallade also got into a low gravity position, bring up one of his arms, ready to strike with his blade.

"Metagross, Gallade," Alex said quietly, "This is Tara, she is going to be staying with us for a few months." Gallade and Metagross still didn't back down. By now, Charizard had picked up on the tense vibes and he too was growling, spitting flames from his mouth, his tail fire burning with intensity, eager for battle.

"Stand down," Alex said, and the other Pokémon, rather disappointed, stood down, however, Charizard was still growling and Gallade was still staring his ever unblinking gaze at Tara. Tara let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Brandon had stepped in-between the Pokémon and Tara, and he looked at Alex.

"Wise move," he said solemnly, "We better go and wake Joey up, and then we can get to work."

"Yeah, alright," Alex said, turning away from the scene, "Alright guys, who's up for and adventure?"

"Not to bother you a tiny bit," Tara said, "But, where exactly is this base of yours?"

"Amateur," Alex said, and Tara sent him a deadly look, "Just look down there," He said, pointing to the end of the clearing which was still covered by the shadow of Mount Silver. Almost as if on cue, the shadow slide away, to revile a large log cabin, only one story high, but it also had a rather large barn type building next to it, also made of logs. Tara just gasped.

"Not that impressive," Alex chuckled, heading towards the building, "Charizard, could you go wake Joey up? Flame him if you have to."

The Pokémon followed Alex, apart from Lucario. He stared at Tara for a moment longer, his face unreadable. He then grunted, turned and ran toward the house.

"I better go make breakfast," Brandon sighed, walking towards the house, Dragonite in tow.

"What a weird group," Tara said to herself. One of the pokéballs on her belt opened, and a Weavile popped out. It looked around itself, and then back at Tara, a hint of confusion and disgust on its face.

"Yeah, I know it's different to our normal missions," she said to it, "But we're knee deep in this one."


	5. Chapter 5

Alex snuck along the corridor that moved past the bedrooms. He stopped at a wooden door that was slightly ajar, and looked into it.

It was dark, save for the sunlight seeping in through a crack in the curtains. He could see a young boy asleep in his bed, and several shapes dotted about on the floor, which was as messy as ever with magazines and books about Pokémon battling and training.

Alex was about sneak in when a large blue beast bowled him past the door way. Alex landed on his back, and suddenly felt a warm tongue lick his face.

"Swampert old buddy!" Alex whispered, "How you doing girl?" The Swampert nuzzled his face. "Sorry I couldn't take you along on this one, but to make up for it, care to wake Joey up for me?" He said. He saw an evil twinkle in her eyes.

"Alright," Alex stood up and walked back to the door, and opened it up slightly more, "On the count of three. One, two… THREE!" Alex slammed the door wide open, "HYDRO PUMP!" Swampert released a torrent of water from its mouth, and it slammed into the floor in the middle of the room, causing water to spray everywhere.

"WAH!" The young boy in the bed yelled, jumping up. "What's going on?" Alex could only roll on the floor laughing as the boy and his Pokémon, drenched head to foot, were staring around themselves in confusion. "Did I blow a pipe? Did I… HEY!" The boy yelled suddenly as he saw Alex laughing, "That's not cool!"

"You're face!" Alex laughed, "Anyway, we're back… I'm sorry," He said, as he started to snigger again, "Go get dressed Joey; meet in the lounge in ten, alright." Alex said, trying to keep a straight face. It didn't help Swampert was on the floor, laughing. Alex walked out of sight, but the boy heard Alex burst out laughing again almost as soon as he was out of the door.

Ten minutes later, everyone was gathered in the lounge. It was a huge space, with a large, stone fireplace, wooden floor and walls with large windows and chairs and sofas which felt like they were trying to swallow you in their plush cushions.

Everyone was there. Alex stood in front of the fire place, his Pokémon team of Charizard, Arcanine, Swampert, Gallade and Metagross were dotted around the room, all alert and sharp. Brandon was sitting in one of the chairs, a large file in his hand, along with a pen. His team of Noctowl, Skarmory, Dragonite and Slowking were also dotted around the room.

Joey was on one end of the sofa, his short, messy black hair sticking up in all directions, his team of Quilarva, Craniados, Cubone, Abra, Poliwag and Gible were sat around him, all yawning and rubbing their eyes, still a little wet form the wakeup call

Tara was standing by the door, not sure she was welcome, as all of Alex's Pokémon kept on glaring at her. Her Weavile stood its ground, returning the Hostile glare.

"Alright," Alex said, "Here is the deal. We have been tasked in locating, retrieving and transporting the six orbs of Earth," Joey stuck his hand in the air, "Yes Joey?"

"As in the ones that are suppose to summon the six legendaries?"

"Yes, those," Alex replied. "It seems a near impossible task, but we've bulled through better odds than this before, take the Kanto Library for example. Anyway, back onto the topic." He clicked a remote in his hand and the 42 inch plasma HD flat TV on the wall above the fireplace turned on, to show the six images Tara and Brandon had seen before.

"We are all aware that these are mostly imaginative drawings," Alex continued, "However, they have cropped up so many times in legend and history, we should have a rough idea to which regions they belong. The Red, Blue and Green ones are in the Hoenn are, whilst the Diamond, Pearl and Amber ones are in Sinnoh."

"We however, need to locate them. Although some of them were recently discovered, they have been taken to secure locations in places unknown. Anyone have any ideas where we should start this hunt?"

Brandon looked thoughtfully at the TV screen. "Maybe," He said slowly, "We could try and pinpoint the exact locations of those that have not been discovered recently first, since we know those won't be going anywhere any time soon. Then we can start to track the movements of those already uncovered."

"Alright," Alex said, clapping his hands, "Tasks: Brandon, You are to go through ancient manuscripts, papers, documents, the lot. Tara," Tara looked up surprised when he called her name, "You are to assist Brandon. Internet research is what I need you to do. Look for any modern sightings of them, including the discovered ones." Alex turned to Joey.

"Joey, you shall continue training with your team, as I hear there is a league try out happening soon, you need to be in good shape," Joey jumped up in excitement, along with his Pokémon, "However, I will need a few days to go over old maps and navigational charts I have. Is that okay?"

"Sure is Alex," the young kid said, jumping up and down.

"Alright. We shall have regular meetings, once every three nights," Alex said, clapping his hands. "The clock is ticking people. The sooner we find these orbs, the better it'll be for all of us.


	6. Chapter 6

Two months had passed since the first meeting of the new team. Little information had been found on the internet about the orbs, most of the conspiracy theories on chat room forums. Alex had decided to put it down as a questionable source, as they would get back to them.

Brandon had little luck with the scripts. They all seemed to mention about the terrible conflict but a thousand years ago between several great armies, but after that, all fact of the orbs vanished. Only a few poems and stories contained them.

Alex had better luck with the maps and Charts. After he had heard from Brandon about the disappearance of any mentioning's after the Great War, he had narrowed his search to the times of the Great War. He had eventually found that there were seven maps from the Seven Armies, kept in the Pewter city museum. There were photos of it on the internet, but the quality of the shots were bad, and the ink on the maps had nearly all disappeared. This had depressed the team spirit, especially with it being so close to a break through.

"Quilarva, Flame thrower!" Joey yelled. His Quilarva obeyed, and released a super heated blast of fire towards Gallade.

"Gallade, Psycho Cut!" Alex commanded calmly. Gallade charged forwards toward the flame thrower, his elbows glowing white. With a swift upper cut movement, the white light shot off its extended elbow and cut through the flame thrower, slamming into Quilarva. The Pokémon watching the battle cheered out their encouragement.

"Quilarva, get up," Urged Joey, "Quick attack, now!" Quilarva got up and sped towards Gallade, a streak of white light behind it.

"Gallade, Extreme speed to dodge," Alex called out, and Gallade was a blurry green and white blob, dodging each of Quilarva's lunges. It looked more like Gallade was teleporting than using extreme speed, appearing here, there and everywhere.

"Joey," Alex called out, "You need to relax, and try and work out where Gallade will appear next."

Joey grinded his teeth. As much as he loved to battle Alex, he couldn't get over how fast, strong and loyal his Pokémon were to him. He started to follow Gallade's movements; Left, front, right, left, back, front, right, above, left… _Damn it, there's no pattern!_ Joey's mind screamed.

"Gallade, keep up the dodging with the extreme speed, but let's use slash," Alex called out. Gallade continued to appear all around Quilarva, but now, every now and then, he would lash out with his elbow when he was close to Quilarva.

"Quilarva, hang in there, and remain calm!" Was all Joey could call out as he watched Gallade's movements. There had to be a way to tell where he would appear next. The he saw it. Just before Gallade appeared, there was a small kick of dust, and Gallade paused just before the attack, giving time for an attack to be mounted.

"Quilarva," Joey called, "When I call a direction, use flame thrower in that direction!". Quilarva looked around and nodded, but was promptly struck by another slash attack.

"Left!" Joey called. Quilarva turned and blasted out a flame thrower. Gallade somersaulted out of the way.

"Very good Joey," Alex called, "But now I think it's time for a break." The two Pokémon stood down, Gallade pulling in his elbows, and Quilarva cutting out the flames on its back.

"You have improved a lot," Alex said to Joey, walking up to him, pulling off his brown jacket to show his black t-shirt and commando belt on his blue jeans, "Your observation is getting better, you now don't panic nearly as often, and even with overwhelming odds."

Joey smiled with pride. Alex praising him was the biggest thing to him. He idolised Alex, and tried to adapt his tactics to be similar to his; Striking with power at speed, whilst being nimble at the time.

"Okay kiddo," Alex said, ruffling his hair, I think it's high time we returned to the house. I'm getting hungry, and I think our teams could do with a rest." As soon as he said that, Tara ran out of the house into the clearing.

"Guy's," She yelled, "Brandon's got something!"

"Be right there," Alex called. His face darkened and turned round to his team. "Come on guys, we have to suffer her for a few more hours until we can do our own training." The Pokémon grumbled as they got up and trudged back to the house.

Joey couldn't understand why Alex was so cold towards the new girl. She had always been nice to Joey, offering him help when he was training, letting him battle her, helping him with is theory of Pokémon battle, as well as giving him tips about battling. He shook his head and went inside after Alex.


	7. Chapter 7

"Alex," Brandon said excitedly, "Here is the manuscript I was talking to you about earlier," He showed him a scan of a paper on his laptop screen, "See that symbol in the corner there?"

"Yeah," Alex said, bending down and looking at it. It was six circles, all overlapping each other, and in the middle of the overlap, a small dot, "What about it?"

"I believe this is the symbol for the six orbs," Brandon said, looking at the symbol, "It has been found on old documents through the history before they disappeared,"

"What's with the Dot in the middle then?" Alex asked

"That, I don't know yet," Brandon said, frowning, "I am working on it though."

"So, is this all you wanted to show?" Alex asked.

"Well, I thought I had seen it before, and low and behold, I had," Brandon said, click on the screen, pulling up another image. It was of a mossy stone wall, but under the moss and ivy, there was a small carving of six circles and a dot.

"Where did you take this?" Alex asked, standing up.

"I didn't," Brandon said, smiling, "The Pewter City Gym leader did."

"But why…"

"Because I asked him to take a photo of any ruins or carvings he came across in his travels, in case they were need for a later date."

"So, where was this taken?"

"A Shrine in Johto," Brandon said, pointing to a forest area on the west side of the region.

"West side, Hmm," Alex said, a plan starting to form in his mind.

"Oh, and something else cropped up too," Brandon said frowning; he opened another image, this time it was a scan of an ancient poem.

"I don't have the thing for poems," Alex said darkly, "I hate them."

"I know you do, but this was written by a Man named Apollo. He was a veteran of the Great War, and he turned to a scholar after it was done." Brandon stated, "Just look at this line in the poem."

Alex looked closely at the screen

_Just as one became seven, seven became one. Then one became seven once more, but waits to be united as one again._

"Hang on a second…" Alex said, "Could you put it up on the big screen?" Brandon typed a few keys and the image pulled up. Alex stared at the zoomed in image. Then he saw it.

"Brandon, pull up all the words with O in that sentence." Brandon typed a few more keys, and the words appeared side by side on the screen.

"What is it Alex?" Brandon asked, walking over to the large TV screen as well.

"Its genius," Alex muttered, and then he said aloud, "Brandon, look at the O's. What can you tell me about them?"

Brandon looked, and then said, "These 3 O's are decorated, like they were at the beginning of a sentence."

"Exactly, now, look closer into the decoration," Alex said. Brandon moved closer to the three O's that were now on the screen.

"There's that mark again," He breathed, as he saw, nestled within the swirly decorations, the six circles and a dot.

"Now look at where they are in the sentence," Alex said, walking over to the laptop and pulling up the original scan. He highlighted the three words.

"On each of the words, One," Brandon said. He looked at Alex. "What does this mean?"

"It means the seven maps could be placed on top of one another, and when done so, it would reveal something else." A voice said behind them. Alex and Brandon turned to see Tara leaning on the doorway, a little sweaty from her run in the mountains with her team.

"How do you know that?" Brandon asked

"It was a popular trick at the time of the Great War," Tara said, "The idea was to draw battle plans, a different bit on a thin piece of paper, so when they came together, the plans could be read, however, the enemy would need all bits of the papers to make any sense out of them."

"So you're saying we need to get these seven sheets to read the message on them?" Alex asked, deep in thought."

"Yes," Tara said, looking at him, "And since that was written by Apollo, a Veteran of that terrible time, and there are seven maps from the Great War, I'd safely assume that this poem here is referring to the seven maps from the seven armies."

"But why," Brandon asked out loud, "Why would the seven armies, fighting each other, have a unified map when brought together?"

"I said the technique was popular in the great war, I never said it was founded then," Tara replied, "It has been a useful way of keeping something secret, even to this day. You split the pieces up and only bring them together at the needed times."

Alex was sitting in a chair, deep in thought.

"Alex, what you thinking?"

Alex smiled as an idea just hit him.

"We'll bring the maps here," Alex said simply, "Along with this wall script of yours. Brandon, Tara, I need you two to go to Johto, go to that shrine, and look for any wall carvings, be it pictures, poems, symbols, cracks, the lot."

"Sure thing Alex," Brandon said, "But what about you?"

"I'm going to need to ask one of our old friends to look the other way when we visit Pewter city," He smiled sadly, "We're gonna need to get those maps."


	8. Chapter 8

The Train shot through the countryside, the leaves on the trees starting to turn the many colours of autumn; Brown, yellow, gold and red. In this shiny speeding bullet of metal, sat Tara and Brandon in a First class Apartment. Brandon had papers all over the table top, His laptop on the seat next to him. He was busy poring over a report about an Ancient text found a few years back, his small, rectangular reading glasses slowly slipping down his nose. His Noctowl was sitting on his shoulder, also reading the paper, its head cocking from side to side sometimes.

Tara was sitting opposite him, packing and re-packing her bag. Her Weavile was watching her every move, not moving a muscle. Tara tried to focus on the things she need to have; Camera with large zoom and high pixel count, Phone, Water proofs, rope, food and water, but her mind kept on wondering over Alex. She was determined to find out why he had such a cold attitude to strangers to the group, as well as about another million questions.

Once she was satisfied with the contents of her bag, she pulled her combat knife out of its sheath on her waist, and started to polish it. As casually as she could, she tried to bring up the topic of Alex.

"So, what is Alex planning on doing again?" She asked Brandon.

"He's travelling to Pewter City with Joey to get those Maps," Brandon replied, not looking up from his notes.

"Oh," She said, "Well, what did he mean about an old friend having to look the other way?"

"We know the Gym leader very well, and Alex once Travelled with him for a while when he was just starting out," Brandon said, still scanning the report, "A gym leader doesn't just sit on their arses waiting for a challenger; they are also the muscle of the law enforcement of that town or city. Anything bad goes down; they go to deal with it if force or back up is required. Alex wanted to give him a heads up of what's going to happen, so he could make the decision of what to do himself. Knowing the Gym leader though, he will understand, and probably stand down for Alex to make his move."

"Wow, you must be real close for a Gym leader to do that," Tara said, still polishing her knife, "So, Alex used to travel then?"

"Yeah," Brandon said, "He travelled Johto and Kanto. He was about eleven when he did that, pulling off spectacular wins with his teams of Growlith, Charmeleon, Beldum, Mudkip, Ralts and of course, his first Pokémon, Riolu."

"That Lucario was his starter?" Tara gasped, dropping the knife. Weavile caught it in a flash and handed it back to her. Brandon looked up in surprise.

"Yeah, I thought it would have been obvious to spot," Brandon said, raising and eyebrow, "Notice how the two are practically on the same wavelength, always in the same mood and having some of the same mannerisms?"

"Now you mention it, I do now," Tara said quietly, "Another question Brandon, his training techniques."

"What about them?" Brandon asked, turning back to his paper and slipping his glasses back on.

"Well, he's a very," Tara tried to think of the right word, "Hands on, should I say. What's with that?"

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked

"Well, I was going for a jog one morning, and I came to this stream," Tara said, not noticing she had stopped cleaning her knife, and was now sitting back, eyes closed, "He was there, in the stream, facing his Gallade. Gallade used a Psycho cut again and again on him, and he just crossed his arms across his chest, and took each blow. He did the same for each attack, on all his Pokémon."

Brandon sighed and took off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Alex likes to train _with _his Pokémon, rather than just getting them to train. It gets them more in sync with him and him more in sync with them. It also allows him to feel their power, and see where he needs to train them better."

"So is that why he did a one on one battle with each one," Tara asked, "Him against one of his own?"

Brandon laughed, "Yeah, that's why he does that. He also does that so his Pokémon learn to think for themselves, rather than just awaiting for a command. In this line of work, they need to think on their feet, and react in time to save their own lives if everything goes wrong."

"But, it didn't look like any attacks hit him," Tara replied

"That's because he has the ability to manipulate his Aura," Brandon said, "Lucky guy too. He mainly uses it to shield himself. The crossing of the arms, that brings up a spherical shield around him. No attack gets through. He's down side is that since he is human; His aura takes a while to recover if it has been used in excess of its amount, so he becomes tired, sluggish, and in one hell of a mood."

"Right," Tara said, "Well, another question. He had taken off his normal brown jacket and black t-shirt when he did this,"

"As normal," Brandon said,

"Yes, but," Tara continued, "I saw he wore a chain, with about forty dog tags on there. What's that about?"

Brandon looked up from his report and stared at Tara for a long time. Tara tried to read his face, but no emotion was to be seen.

"That," Brandon said darkly, "Is from a Dark part of his history that he never, ever talks about."

"Please, tell me," Tara asked quietly, "If I'm going to fit in here, I might as well know him."

Brandon stared at her for a long moment, and then sighed. "Alright," He said, "I suppose you have a right to know why he acts as he does towards new comers,"

"It all began when he was travelling around with the Pewter Gym leader and three others, two young male trainers just like himself, and another gym leader, this time from Cerulian, and she was a rather bad tempered girl. Anyway, the point is that they travelled around the region, challenging gyms and such, all three of them had a friendly rivalry going on but so strong was the friendship, if one was ever stuck at a gym, they wouldn't move on until the trainer said they could. They were like brothers to each other"

"However, the silver conference happened, and once it was over, the team split. The two Gym leaders and the black, messy haired trainer went back to Kanto, and I believe he went to Hoenn and Sinnoh with the gym leader from Pewter city. Alex and the other trainer decided to retake the Kanto Championship again. And that's where it all went wrong"

"You see, they were in the Pokémon centre at the campus for the Championship. It was the day before the semi finals. Both trainers had got through to it, and they were aiming to both get into the Final. I think they had planned for a draw to win the thing together, but that's away from the storyline. It was the morning, and suddenly there was a massive explosion. The front doors were blasted open and a gang of forty men charged in, bearing machine guns and these supped up Pokémon, such as a hitmochan, but had two blades attached to its knuckles. These guys were there, and they weren't afraid kill. In fact, I think two people were killed in the first blast, the glass just shredding them"

"Alex and this other young trainer saw what happened and sprinted out of the lobby, Alex carrying his Riolu, and up the stairs to the middle floor, the thirteenth floor I think, where there was a ballroom. The other trainer told him to wait there as he went out to search for more people to get to hide there. Soon, everyone was in there. No sooner had the last person entered; the men with the guns were there, blocking each entrance. Alex turned to ask his trainer friend what to do now, when he found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol. The trainer turned out to be the ring leader of the bastards, and had planned this operation, its objective to get the jewel from the centre of the trophy. He said that he was planning on winning the trophy from Alex, but he said their _client _had become impatient"

"He was held in there with those people, at gun point, for six hours; no food or water. No police or anything came, due to the tournament not actually happening that day, and the place being so isolated. This trainer comes back six hours after he leaves the room, with the jewel, and the judges from the championships. He puts them into the room, and turns out of the door. Alex manages to release his Pokémon and blast his way through the guards. After the public has the control of the room, Alex votes to go and get help, and so do a boy two years older than he, and a boy of about five. Well, his parents asked Alex to take him. The three, with the help of the two trainers Pokémon, manage to clear the way to the exit. Word gets back to the public, and they start to run for the exit"

"Alex and the other two boys make a sprint for the woods next to the Championship stadium, and turn around to try to signal to the rest of the people to go that way, but then the bastards turn up in their numbers. They drive some of the people into the stadium, and some back into the centre. Alex planned a rescue operation, which the other two agree to, and they sneak to the stadium. They notice that the bastards are pulling back, and they decide to charge to the stadium. As they get to the clearing, they hear a beeping noise, and all of them freeze in their tracks. Alex turns around to see the trainer who had been his friend, at the far end, away from the builds, who just smiles, and yells out 'No witnesses'"

"The blast that went off was huge. It ripped through the structure support of the two buildings, causing them to collapse on the people trapped inside. Alex and the other two were flung into the woods, derby flying everywhere. Alex had a piece of glass the size of a blade cut his back, the scar can still be seen today, and if you were to ever look at Lucario's eyes, you can still see the scar on his eye lid of where some wood cut it. Alex was broken, angry, and full of revenge. He felt that he could have done something to save those people, so he wears every single name of those who perished on that awful day around his neck, including his own, caring the burden so to speak. He knew his old self had died in that explosion, replaced by one bent on revenge"

"That's the true reason why he went into this business of so called 'Bounty hunting', not truly for the money. It was to hope that one day; his path would cross with those who destroyed his life. To this day, he hasn't come across them once"

"You may notice that he is quiet, calm, and always thinking of plans that would damage the least people. He has never been a true killer, always avoiding it if he could; however, if he makes a kill, he puts a name on a dog tag and wears it, not as a trophy, but out of remorse. He does the same if he hears that the other boy he used to know has made a killing, he adds their name too"

"Since then, he's stopped focusing on him. It took a while, but now he has calmed himself down, knowing that the time will come when he will confront him again. Till then, he has taken on the job as a 'Law abiding freelancer', basically he won't do anything too illegal, and he has worked with the law enforcement a lot of the time. He also took up the task of training a young child in Pokémon, in hopes he will go out and have the adventure Alex was cut off from"

"Joey," Tara whispered, wrapped in the story. Brandon nodded and turned away from Tara.

"Yeah, his parents were killed. Alex took him in as a Brother, never a father. Joey knows Alex's history as well as me, and I think that's what makes him admire Alex all the more; the fact that Alex didn't turn into the dark person that that event would have caused any other person to turn into. He fought the darkness, and he came out on top."

Tara wiped a tear from her eye. She had never known about that incident. All she had heard was that the championship league had been cancelled due to the collapse of the buildings, and the deaths of everyone there. This had been many years ago.

"May I ask," she said, as the train began to slow as it pulled into the station, "How do you and Joey know all the small details, like his back, the floor number and the beeping?"

The train stopped and Brandon stood up, putting stuff back into his bag, papers and laptop, Noctowl still on his shoulder. He straightened up and looked at Tara, a sad smile on his face.

"Because we were the two people he saved."


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright Joey, you know the plan," Alex said, walking calmly up to the Pewter City Museum. Lucario, Joey and Quilarva were walking next to him, climbing the steps to the grand entrance.

"This is so cool," Joey said excitedly, "Getting to do a mission with you guys! Did you feel this excited when you did your first mission?"

"Yes, I did," Alex lied, "So, run through the plan one more time,"

Joey took a deep breath, "Go inside, and cause a diversion once you have found the maps," Joey said, "And then, when you give the all clear, that is to be when Lucario comes to interfere with the diversion I have come up with, that will be my cue to leave and meet you at the train station."

"Very good Kiddo," Alex said, ruffling Joey's head, "Now remember, keep cool, and don't panic. If it is going wrong, don't forget I'm only a room away. Lucario will also keep an eye on you." Lucario grunted and nodded. Alex and Joey stopped just short of the door.

"Alright," Alex said, taking a deep breath, "Let's do this."

They walked into the museum and walked up to the information desk. A short, blond haired woman smiled at them.

"Hello, how may I help you?" she asked politely.

"Hey there, I was wondering if you could tell me where the Great War Artefacts Exhibit is being shown." Alex asked, leaning on the desk, "My Nephew here is studying it at school and he wants to see some of the items to help him write a report on it."

"The Great War? It's up the flight of stairs behind me. It is the whole of the first floor," The woman said, still smiling.

"Thank you," Alex said, and walked up the flight of stairs. Joey noticed there were two police officers at the bottom of the stairs, with two growlithes, standing on guard. Alex slipped on his glasses and tapped them once. It came up with the blueprints for the building in one eye.

"Right, I suggest you do it here," Alex muttered to Joey, "And be imaginative. Relax, and have fun." Alex left Joey at the top of the stairs, and Lucario followed him. Joey looked around, his Quilarva sitting on his foot, cleaning itself.

"Make a diversion, okay," He said, taking a deep breath, "This shouldn't be too difficult."

"Oi, move out of the way Nerd," A voice said from behind him. Three large boys stood behind him, all three of them with short hair cuts, large bodies and small, pug like faces.

"Urm, this is a public area," Joey said, "you know, and area for the people, we are free to do what we will."

"Well, that means I'm free to push you down the stairs," the first boy laughed, and shoved Joey backwards. Joey stumbled slightly, causing Quilarva to be dislodged from his foot. It flared up, jumping between Joey and the bullies.

"Aww, look," the three kids laughed, "The nerdy kid has a nerdy Pokémon." They burst out laughing. Joey growled, he couldn't do anything, he was on a mission to cause a-. Joey suddenly smiled.

"Oh yeah, fat-so's," The three boys stopped laughing immediately at that, "Let me show you how much of nerd I'm not, in a battle."

"You're on," the first kid growled, pulling a pokéball from his belt, "Go, Treeko!" His pokéball opened, and a Treeko appeared. He glared at Joey, "What are you going to use, nerd?" the boy yelled.

"Quilarva, lets defend our honour," Joey said, and Quilarva flared up again. A crowd had started to form at the bottom of the stairs, watching the young trainers battle.

"Treeko, Pound," Called the large kid, and the Treeko swung its tail towards Quilarva.

"Quilarva, Dodge with the use of quick attack," Joey yelled

Alex and Lucario were looking at the seven maps when they had a commotion behind them. They turned to see a man running up to a group of people looking at the maps around the room.

"There is a kid taking on those three bully kids, and he is dominating the match!" he said, out of breath, "He is like half their height and size, but the moves his Pokémon are pulling off, He is league standard I tell you!" There was a murmur of excitement as the group ran towards the main entrance. Soon it was only Lucario in the room with Alex. Alex couldn't help but feel a small burst of pride within him. He suddenly wondered if he should go and watch Joey, but he thought better of it. He could nab the security footage later.

He turned his attention to the maps. Each was on an A2 size piece of ancient thin paper, hanging from the ceiling from a clothes line. Alex looked at Lucario and smiled. This was going to be easy.

"No! Taillow!" the second bully yelled as Craniados took it down with an impressive Zen Headbutt from above.

"Alright Craniados!" Joey yelled, jumping on the spot, Quilarva cheering on its team mate. Craniados let out a roar of triumph.

"Oaky, time for the true master of you two," the third bully said, stepping forward. He picked a pokéball from his belt and threw it.

"Go, Arbok!" he yelled, and the giant snake Pokémon appeared, staring down at Joey and his team. Joey smiled slyly.

"Craniados, you've done fine," Joey said, returning it to its pokéball. "Gible, it's your turn!" Joey yelled, releasing his Gible.

"Let's see how you handle this," Joey said, "Dragon Pulse, go!" The land shark Pokémon opened its jaws and a sphere of turquoise energy shot toward Arbok, hitting its mark, sending the snake crashing backwards into a support pillar. The crowd cheered.

Alex finished rolling up the last map and slung the bag holding them over his shoulder. He and Lucario left the room, and headed toward the fire exit.

"Lucario, do your bit," Alex said as he disarmed the alarm on the door and opened it. Lucario nodded and ran off to find Alex.

"Is that all you can do against my Golem?" the third bully said, laughing. Joey ground his teeth in frustration. It had already taken out two of his Pokémon. He didn't want to end the match too soon, in case Alex needed more time, but he didn't want to lose this battle either. He had to wait for Lucario, as he had a plan of how to get out of the building with his help. Suddenly he saw Lucario weaving through the crowd.

"Lucario," Joey called out, "Defend our honour!" The crowd began to mutter.

"Lucario?"

"Lucario? How does he have a Lucario?"

Lucario heard Joey's call. He sighed silently and jumped to the boys side. He had allowed Joey to command him before, but the last time he had, he lacked the experience, and had to perform a few tricks of his own. But this time, he could sense this boy had a plan. Using his aura, he saw the plan the boy had in his mind. It was a Plan Lucario liked.

"Wow! A real Lucario!" the crowd gasped. Lucario rolled his eyes. The Humans had been too engrossed with the match to notice him before.

"Lucario," He heard Joey whisper, "Do your thing." Lucario grunted in a.

"Golem, Sand tomb!" The bully yelled.

"Lucario, Extreme speed, followed up with an Aura sphere!" Joey called. Lucario used extreme speed to dodge the pathetically slow moving Golem, and slammed into him at high speed. He then jumped into the air and fired an Aura sphere directly down on top of the slow Pokémon. The smoke from the blast engulfed the Crowd and caused the fire alarms to go off. Everyone coughed and spluttered as they made their way outside.

Joey, Quilarva and Lucario made their way out with the crowd, and slipped away from the Museum once outside, heading towards the train station.

Later that day, the Museum was surrounded by police cars and officers. The seven maps from the Great War had been stolen. The thieves had stolen them earlier that day, in broad daylight. The Gym was notified, and soon the whole Gym had turned up. A tall man with spiky Brown hair, orange long sleeve, brown trousers and hiking shoes walked into the Museum, ducking under the crime scene tape. An officer stopped him, but he flashed his Gym ID.

"Okay, Mr Harrison, sorry for the inconvenience,"

The man walked up the stairs, past the massive crater in the middle, and to the room that housed the Maps. When he walked into the room, all the officers snapped to attention.

"Stand down people, and keep on working," The man said. He walked over to the place where the maps had once hung. In their place there was an A3 sheet of paper. On it was a note made of cuttings from newspapers.

_Hey there, long time no see,_

_Sorry I couldn't do it any other way; desperate times call for desperate measures._

_Anyway, I'm hoping to borrow these for a few months. I will get them back, just don't know when._

_One more thing; TO the person it concerns, the great reunion will be happening soon. Dress: Smart, at the Silver Home._

_Will give you the details later on._

_Until then my friends, I bid you good day._

_LW_

_PS Could you let the others know? I can't get hold of them. Thanks._

The man smiled. _Oh Alex, you owe me big time for this._ He chuckled to himself. The man turned around and addressed the officers in the room. "I shall take this note for further analysis in the gym. Gather what other evidence you have, and bring it to me. I shall head up this investigation."

The officers murmured in agreement. After all, it wasn't odd for leaders of the gyms to head up cases, as they were practically part of the Justice system.

The man walked out of the building, the paper rolled up in his hand. Once he was out of sight, he pulled out his mobile and dialled a number.

"_Hello?_" a female voice answered.

"Misty? It's Brock," the man said, "I've just been slipped a message. Get a hold of Ash and tell him to meet us at Mount Silver. Alex needs our help on this one."


	10. Chapter 10

Brandon and Tara pushed their way through the thick undergrowth, pushing bushes and ferns out of the way, the leaves of the trees in full autumn splendour.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Tara moaned, "We've been wondering this way for ages!"

"I thought you were trained by the Territory Guards?" Brandon asked, his eyebrow rose, "You must be used to wandering through wilderness to reach your objective."

"Yes, but still," Tara replied, "Even a trained guard can suffer fatigue."

"Noctowl," Bandon called into the sky, "Do you see anything?" Noctowl's cry came back as a negative."It has got to be somewhere around here," He said, scratching his head, looking at the map, "Brock said it was in this part of the woods."

"Maybe Brock got it wrong?" Tara questioned, "I still can't believe you know _the _Brock."

"We have a lot in common," Brandon said, pushing further through the undergrowth, "Can't you get a Pokémon to help us search?"

Tara sighed and looked about for Weavile. She soon spotted the Dark Ice type darting from tree to tree. "Weavile, Scout and report back," She commanded. Weavile nodded and dart off ahead of them.

"You have the Weavile well trained," Brandon remarked.

"Thanks," Tara replied, "He and I were partnered in the Territory Guards. We were based in the Northern Territories, so being an Ice type, he was a great partner, and still is."

Brandon continued to push forward. Suddenly they walked into a clearing, the sun filtering through the leaves gently, rays resting on a somewhat large tombstone shaped stone. Brandon walked over to the stone, pulling out the photo that Brock had given him. He checked the stone it was made of to that of in the picture. It was a Perfect match.

"Tara, I think I've found it," Brandon called over his shoulder. Tara came crashing into view, tripping over a tree root.

"Really?" She asked stupidly, "after all this time?"

"Yep," Brandon said, smiling to himself, "Now, to find that symbol." He pulled out a file from his bag, and flicked through it. He then pulled out a really old piece of paper which had been laminated on both sides.

"What's that?" Tara asked, nodding to the paper in Brandon's hand.

"This," Brandon said dramatically, "Is an article written just after the Great War, and is the last scientific document to talk about the six orbs. This also contains information about this particular stone, I think."

"You think?" Tara asked, rather exasperatedly, "So this could have been for nothing?"

"Afraid so," Brandon said, frowning, "Unless I find the right sentence, we may have wasted our time here."

"You have to be kidding me!" Tara moaned, sitting down on a large slab of rock at the bottom of the upright stone. Brandon ignored her and continued to read the text in his head. Suddenly, he looked up from the text and focused his attention on the rock,

"The Key must be placed in the lock, and the truth shall be known to the barer…" Brandon muttered, looking up and down the rock, "Key and Lock… Key and Lock…" He walked over to the East side of the rock and crouched down, looking at the photo, and then the Rock. He suddenly scrapped away the ivy at the bottom left corner.

"Just face it," Tara said, "It was a wasted trip…"She stopped in mid sentence. There was a glow coming from where Brandon had just removed the Ivy. Brandon looked shocked, and then looked down at his paper, to see the top corner glowing in the same six circle one dot pattern. There was a loud rumbling noise, and Tara felt the stone she was sitting on vibrate. She jumped off it quickly, drawing out her knife by reflex, holding it forward hand.

The Stone she had been sitting on slowly sunk, little by little, forming a set of steps leading to a six foot archway under the upright stone, leading to darkness. Brandon came around the front and looked at the open archway.

"I studied a little about these sort of passage ways, the ones of Ancient times, before I had even met Alex. It says that if you do not have the correct key for the whole journey, it will end short," Tara shot him a confused look, "You die basically. So, ladies first?"

Brandon held the flash light to his head as they made their way down the rather thin passage way, the rough stone walls tugging on his clothes as he forced his way forward. He held the paper with the symbol on it in front of him, as it had glowed several times after loud rumbling noises had been heard as they forced their way through the passage. The rumblings had ceased after the paper glowed. Assuming this was the "key", Brandon had thought it was safe to keep it out at all times.

"How much further," Tara whispered, "It feels like we've walked as far as back to the train station."

"I don't know," Brandon whispered back, "Just keep pressing forward."

They soon reached a dead end. Brandon held out the paper, and sure enough, it glowed blue. A large glowing symbol appeared on the door, and flashed three times. They then began to spin clock wise and anti clockwise, just like

"It's a combination," Gasped Brandon, "Quick, get this on video!" Tara whipped out her video phone and pressed record. The sequence went on for at least a minute before the wall slid open, to reveal a very large dark space beyond it. So dark that even the flash light wasn't lighting anything up. Brandon reached into his bag and pulled out a flare gun. He pulled the trigger and the flare shot into the open space.

"We might need a few more flares," Brandon said to Tara, not looking away from the monstrous space before them.

It was huge. The lone red light of one feeble flare didn't do justice to how huge it really was. It was a perfectly cut hall, about seventy times the height of Brandon. All over the walls were inscriptions from ancient times, some scrawled over one another. There was a stairway from the door that had opened in front of Brandon leading to the marble floor of this massive hall. Brandon and Tara climbed down the steps, looking around them in wonder. Tara clicked away with the camera.

No sooner had Brandon set foot on the floor, the symbol on the page began to glow. Then certain passages on the wall began to glow in a harsh blue light, some stretching into the distance.

"Tara," Brandon muttered over his shoulder, "Get busy." Tara started clicking away at the images that were aglow. As she did this, Brandon moved over to a wall and put his hand to the glow. It was warm, calm, comforting and felt like a familiar presence was in the room with them.

"Brandon," Tara's voice called from further down the room, "I think you better see this." Brandon moved further into the massive room to where Tara stood, her face lit up by the blue glow of the markings on the wall. She was pointing to an image on the wall. It was of a rectangular block, with two hands, each one on opposite sides. Bellow it were two lines, which became one, then two again, and then one. Under that, there were two symbols, both exactly the same.

"It looks like a ritual of some kind," Brandon muttered, half to himself, "Maybe to unlock the pillars. Tara, take a photo of this, and" Brandon cut himself off as a blue light shot across the floor and up the wall at the far end of the room. The Blight broke into thousands of lines, all moving either vertically or horizontally all over the wall, crisscrossing this way and that, until a highly decorated script shone on the wall.

"By the name of the legendaries," Tara breathed, snapping away with the camera, "This is just too unreal!"

Brandon wasn't looking at the wall. Another image had caught his eye. He crouched down to look at it. It was the shape of a Hand. A right had to be precise, detailed with the ridges of the finger prints to the creases in the palm. Brandon held out his hand and placed it on the image. Has hand was too big, but Brandon felt that warm, comforting and familiar energy again.

"Brandon, what are you doing?" Tara asked, looking down at him. Brandon stood up, his face dark, deep in thought, "Aren't you going to explain to me what this all is?"

"Mmm?" Brandon asked, looking around at Tara, "Oh, yes, I will, when we get back and report to Alex and Joey," His face darkened again, "There is something just too special with this room…" Brandon shook his head. "Have you got all the images?"

"Yep," Tara took out the memory card and handed it to Brandon, "You keep it, so Alex can kill you if you lose it instead of me."


	11. Chapter 11

A day later, Alex, Joey, Brandon and Tara were all sitting in the lounge, looking at the images on the TV screen. Lucario was with them, sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching them intently. Noctowl was once again on Brandon's shoulder, Quilarva was asleep on Joey's lap and Weavile was leaning on a bookcase. The other Pokémon were outside, enjoying some free time.

Alex and Joey had arrived back at the cabin a day before Tara and Brandon had got back from Johto, which had given them time to look at the maps in detail. They were just sheets of old, thin paper with little ink left on them. Alex however believed that there was a lot more to these maps than met the eye, so he had continued to pour over them until Brandon had asked for a meeting with their finds the day he and Tara had got back.

So now Alex was looking at images of blue scripts, words, ancient diagrams and who knew what else, all of them in a strange blue light of some kind.

"So are these all of them?" Alex asked once the slideshow had finished.

"Yes," Brandon said, getting up and placing his laptop on a coffee table in the middle of the chairs and the fireplace, "And before you ask Alex, I have been through them, trying to figure things out." Alex smiled. Brandon knew him too well.

Brandon pulled up and image of the line which broke into two before rejoining again.

"This image here," Brandon began, turning back to the others, "I believe is talking about a time line. At some point, whatever this timeline is for, it clearly shows that this object or event was, is or going to be following the same line, followed by a split in direction for a set amount of time, before the two meet once more. This could be depicting the splitting of the orbs, as they were, at one point in history, together, crafted by the same hands. Then the war broke, and the orbs were scattered. This," Brandon said, pointing at the joining of the lines, "could be what we are doing right now, bring the orbs back together, causing them to be together once more," he moved his hand up the single line.

"So, is this the right thing to do then, going after these orbs," Piped up Joey. Alex had filled him in on the mission on the journey home, "We could once again cause history to repeat itself."

"That is a good point Joey," Brandon said, nodding in his direction, "However, as we can see by this line, there are no more splits, it just keeps going on. I'm assuming that, if it is the orbs timeline, the orbs will be reunited and not be split again."

"Alright," Alex said, his face set to an emotionless expression, "So, are we going to assume that this line is indeed for the orbs?"

"One step ahead of you Alex," Brandon smiled. He pressed the keyboard, and another image popped up, this time it was the rectangle with the image of two hand prints on it, "This was found directly above the line. It seems to show a pillar of some kind, with two hand prints either side."

"And, what does this signify?" Alex asked, his eyes not moving from the screen.

"That, I don't know," Brandon said, hanging his head a little, "There is no clue anywhere which will give away what this one is, however, I didn't come here just to tell you I failed at decrypting this picture." He zoomed into the hand images. Once again, they were in great detail, of the ridges and creases. "These two images are made for a certain person."

"Have you figured out whom yet?" Alex asked.

"No, I am running a search through the governments handprint file as we speak," Brandon said, scratching his neck as he said it. He always scratched the back of his neck when he was talking about an illegal activity he was doing, "So far, no luck."

"I have a feeling you won't find them," Alex said darkly,

"What makes you say that?" Tara queried.

"Just a hunch," Alex said, not looking at her, "What else Brandon?"

"There was a large image with writing on it," Brandon said

"Any details on it?"

"It's a REAPER," Brandon replied.

"A Reaper?" Tara looked between Brandon and Alex, "What do you mean, a Reaper? Does it spell doom and gloom or something?"

"A REAPER is a classification of ancient wisdom left to those in the future," A voice said. Everyone, including Alex, looked to see it was Joey who had spoken, "REAPER stands for Riddle Encrypted Authentic Puzzle Encoded Relay. Long and confusing. It has its own classification due to the fact that it is normal only those who it is meant for that can decode it and use the information it contains. It is normal things like rituals, instructions, location descriptions, basically what the ancients did to secure their information," Joey glanced over at Tara, "A bit like what the military does to its secure files, makes the computer file a jumble of numbers, and whoever has the right program at the other end, and un-jumble the data. The Ancients did just the same; they just made art work out of it though."

"There is always a form of decryption method though," Brandon jumped in, "However, this one seems to be a little, well, different."

"How so?" asked Alex, looking at Brandon in surprise. It was very un-Brandon to be unable to crack an ancient code.

"Just have a look for yourself," Brandon said bringing it up on the screen. The final image of the underground room came up, and it was of the highly decorated walled writing.

"What does it say?" Joey asked,

"That's the problem," Brandon said, looking crestfallen, "It doesn't say anything at all. It's just a collection of symbols, numbers and little diagrams."

"So, it's not a REAPER?" Tara asked, slightly confused,

"No, it still is," Alex said aloud, "Just that it's not a poetic one at last. Basically, it is still withholding critical information, but someone has already done half the work for us."

"What, that makes no sense," Tara said, shaking her head, "Why do the ancients have to be so confusing!"

"Beats me," Alex replied, "Well, I have a theory for the numbers in the sequence."

"You do?" Brandon asked, looking up,

"Yeah, you know how on any map, there are the grids," Alex said, and Brandon's eyes widened, "Well, if we can match the correct numbers together, they might have something to do with those," Alex jerked his head in the direction of the Maps, "I have a feeling they have a lot more to offer than meets the eye."

"Okay people," Alex said, clapping his hands together, "Homework, Brandon, keep working on that REAPER, Tara, I need you to look over the maps for me with my notes, make sure I haven't missed anything. Joey, you and I are going to keep on training. Any questions?" Brandon raised his hand, "Yes Brandon?"

"Did you manage to get that message to Brock?" Brandon asked.

"I did," Alex said, "If all goes to plan, they should be here in a few days. It's going to take a while to hunt down Ash whilst he's off training for the next league."


	12. Chapter 12

"Is that all you've got?" Alex yelled, dodging a Psycho Cut attack from Gallade. He skidded slightly after he landed, crouched in a low gravity position, "Try focusing on a small point of the target more, and put a bit more power behind it." Gallade drew his right arm across his body, the slashed it back around. A ripple of pure energy in the shape of the slash flew toward Alex at such high speed, Alex had to use his reflex of his aura shield to protect him from the brunt of the attack. A cheer erupted from the side of the clearing. Joey was watching with the rest of alex's Pokémon along with his own.

"Now that," Alex said, panting as the faint blue shield in front of him faded, "is a psycho cut. Go take a rest," Gallade gave a slight bow before walking to join the group on the edge of the clearing, "Lucario! You're up!" Alex called.

Lucario exchanged a knuckle bump with Gallade as he walked out into the centre of the clearing, facing Alex. Alex turned his body so his left shoulder was facing Lucario, and he brought is body into a fighting stance. Lucario did the same.

"Alright, Lucario," Alex yelled, "See this as a fight against an attacker. You shall make the first move."

The clearing fell silent, except for the rustling of the autumn wind through the golden leaves of the trees. Lucario remained where he was, studying Alex. Suddenly, he darted forwards with an extreme speed, and soon Alex found himself defeneding himself from a close combat attack, using his aura to match Lucario's speed. He defended the blows, and then launched an aura covered fist into Lucario's unprotected belly. The Aura Pokémon flew back, but rolled in the air and landed on his feet, looking into Alex's eyes, still studying his movements.

"Lucario, remember what I said about the close combat," Alex said, "Remember, keep your guard up by defending certain blows and then counter attacking at the right moment." Lucario grunted to show he had heard. Suddenly he was off again with speed, a mach punch this time. Alex stepped out of the way, but Lucario launched into another close combat, lashing out with its legs as it jumped back toward Alex. Alex defended all the blows, not managing to get an attack in himself. In the end, Alex resorted to a blast of Aura from within himself. The blue shockwave shot out through the clearing, knocking Lucario back, and sending dust and leaves into the atmosphere. Alex fell to the ground on all fours, breathing as if he had just run a marathon, coughing as the dust entered his lungs. It was a stupid move, now he had no energy left to continue.

"Bloody hell," an all too familiar voice shouted through the dust, "You see what you've led us into now? A bloody sandstorm attack!"

"No I haven't," A familiar female voice shouted back, "It was you who chose this way,"

"It was you!"

"No, you,"

"No, you!"

"Shouting never solves anything!" a deeper voice said, "And if you must know, that wasn't a sandstorm attack."

Joey and the other Pokémon appeared at Alex's side, Alex's Pokémon taking up defensive positions around them. The blue aura from Lucario could be seen just through the dust in front of Alex. Slowly, the dust cleared, and on the edge of the forest were three faces Alex thought he wouldn't see for a rather long time. There were three people, two males, one female. The Female had fire red hair in a side ponytail, the taller male had short, brown spiky, hair, and the shorter male had messy Raven hair under a baseball cap. On his shoulder there was a Pikachu.

"Well, if it isn't the troublesome trio?" Alex said, laughing slightly, however, even that took a lot of energy and his arms collapsed. Joey moved over and pulled him up, letting Alex rest on his shoulders.

"Alex?" Ash spluttered, squinting through the settling dust, "Is that really you?"

"Yes it is, I'm afraid," Alex said, walking towards Ash, holding out his hand, Joey still in tow, "It has been too long."

"I know," Ash said, taking his hand and shaking it, both of them pulling into a back clap. "Haven't seen you since Johto."

"No surprise with the directions you were giving," Misty said behind Ash, pulling a face. Ash turned around and pulled one himself.

"So, you were the one who broke into my museum," Brock said from behind Alex. Alex pulled a sheepish grin as he turned to face him.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Alex said, bowing in submission, "After this, I'll pay to put the museum back right."

"You could just ask next time," Brock laughed, pulling Alex into a head lock. "It's good to see you."

"Same here," Alex said, pretending to struggle. Suddenly, a yellow face obscured his vision as Pikachu climbed onto his head and stuck his face in upside down.

"Pikachu!"

"Hello there buddy!" Alex said, "How is the training going? Ash isn't relying on you too much is he?" Pikachu laughed.

Alex pulled himself out of the headlock to try and say hi to misty, but she was in a full blown argument with Ash, again.

"They're still the same," Alex observed,

"Tell me about it," Brock said, rubbing his temples, "it brings back many memories."

"I bet," Alex muttered watching Misty and Ash bicker. He sighed, deciding to put an end to it, "Oi! You two, stop flirting with one another."

Misty and Ash fell silent almost instantly. They turned and glared Daggers as Alex.

"We are not!" The shouted in unison. Alex raised an eyebrow, and the two blushed.

"Right, and I'm Arceus," Alex said.

"That's it!" Misty shouted, "Time for you to get what's coming to you!" She started toward Alex, but quick as a flash, Lucario, Swampert, Gallade, Metagross, Arcanine and Charizard were in front of Alex, all growling a back off warning.

"Guy's, stand down!" Alex ordered, and they all relaxed.

"Oh wow!" Ash said, looking at Alex's collection, "Look at them all! And look at Metagross and Charizard, such cool colours!"

"You've seen them before," Misty said, "When they were in their first forms. How you doing Lucario? Remember me?" she asked Lucario. Lucario nodded and gave a rare smile.

There was a small tug on Alex's arm, and he looked down to see Joey standing next to him, looking at the others with wide and wondrous eyes.

"Oh, yeah, guys," Alex said to Brock, Ash and Misty, "This is Joey. He's a big fan of you all."

Brock walked up to Joey, "Hi Joey, I'm Brock as I'm sure your aware," Joey shock his hand, still silent, "and this is Misty, and that's Pikachu and Ash," He said, pointing to Ash and Pikachu who were both staring at the Black Charizard and White and Gold Metagross.

"Nice to meet you sir," Joey replied, "Sorry about the museum," he said quietly, looking down. Brock knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry kid," He said, "Alex had pre-warned me about it, so I had moved all the really valuable stuff out of it just in case," he shot a look at Alex, "Something always ends up getting blown to bits when he's around."

"Hey!" Alex said, swaying slightly, his aura still not fully recovered, "I told you this before, if they hadn't placed the gas tank so close to their headquarters, then the building would have been fine."

"How about the time you managed to bring down that UAV drone for the Territorial Army. I head on the news that you managed to take out a rather large amount of the Black forest area and several tanks."

"They were a mix of heavy armour and personal carriers," Alex countered, "Plus, the idiot flying the UAV tried ditching it too soon. There was a lake a few clicks north which would have resulted in a perfect save, but no, he aimed for the bloody convoy deployed to get it."

Joey stared at Alex. He didn't know he had had dealings with the Territorial Army.

"Okay!" Brock held his hands up in defence, "I believe you!"

"Okay," Alex said, feeling his energy slowly returning, "Right, everyone, I need to get you all inside. We have a lot to get through so you're up to date."


	13. Chapter 13

"Sir, we have incoming contact from field operative Tango," a young radar operator called out. A large man standing on a balcony in the dark room shifted slightly, but remained quiet, his details hidden from the dim glows of the screens in front of the many people in the operations room. He let himself smile slightly. Sure, Operative Tango could be a bit slow in reporting in, but always had the information he wanted to hear.

"Sir?" The young operator called out, "What do you want me to do?" The large man remained silent, before replying in is large voice.

"Put it through to my office," he said, turning on his heel, "And inform Operatives Juliet and Zulu that I wish for their presences in my office asap."

"Yes sir!"

The large man turned on his heel and walked out of the door, across the hall and into his office. It was a windowless office, with dark blue carpet, a wooden desk, large leather armchairs in front of it, with a large leather desk chair behind it. On the wall was a emblem of a large Fearrow with it wings stretched out, its head turned to the right. In its claws it held a M4 colt Commando with the words "Defenders of Freedom" underneath the image. It was the emblem of the Territory Army.

The large man picked up the phone and pressed a few buttons, soon, he could hear Operative Tango on the other end.

"Operative Tango, it has been too long," He said quietly.

"Sorry sir, but the advances here have been somewhat, slow," the voice at the end of the phone replied.

"As expected," The man said, "It isn't easy chasing down those six orbs."

"Some more help has been enlisted," the voice at the end of the phone said, "Progress should now be a bit more swift then the past few months."

"Naturally," The man replied, "However, Tango, I must ask you to wait before delivering your update, I have a few extra ears coming to listen."

"Understood," the voice replied, "I shall wait until you say."

"That shouldn't be too long," the large man asked as there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he called. The door opened to reveal four people.

The first was a rather tall and muscular man, dressed in an orange suit with short, neatly combed back brown hair. He had an air of coolness and calm about him, with an aura of confidence surrounding him. Behind him came a woman with long grey hair, a pair of wrap around shades, and dressed in a long dark coat. Behind her was a senior soldier, dressed in full combats, complete with sidearm and flack vest. He had cold grey eyes, and short white hair, his muscles bulging through his combats. They all walked into the office and sat down on the arranged leather seats.

The last person to enter the room was a boy of about nineteen, with long blonde hair pushed behind his ears and out of the way of his eyes which were scanning the other people in the room with their penetrating green gaze. He shut the door behind him and stood at the back of the office, remaining ever silent.

The large man behind the desk nodded to each newcomer before speaking.

"I welcome you to my office, Zulu, Juliet, Golf and Echo," He nodded to each person in turn, the boy at the back, followed by the woman, the man in the orange suit and the soldier, "Or should I say Zyrun, Commander J, Giovanni and Captain E 'Echo' Repins. Apologies for using your designated code names for most of the time, but we might have been bugged.

"Now, you must be wondering why I have called you in here, and I am about to tell you. I have received word from Operative Tango in the field that they are about to start collecting the Orbs," He looked around, waiting to see what their reaction would be. There wasn't any. They all still had their eyes set on him.

"Tango, report," The large man said into the phone, hitting the loudspeaker button.

"Yes sir," The voice came through the phone, "As you are all aware, I have been tracking the target team for the past few months, and interesting information have been un-covered. SO far, we have managed to acquire the Great War maps, and have been to the temple of Knowledge, as I am to understand it and have found the directions of how to perform the ceremony of Calling. It also had several hints to where the orbs now lie. The interesting thing is that the information is constantly being up-dated on the walls with the whereabouts of this orbs, with the co-ordinates constantly changing for those in custody. It is almost as if the orbs and the Cave is one, or that the Ancients are still there, scrawling it out.

"However, we are planning to move out after discovering how to read the map, which I shall put forward tomorrow. Until then, I have no more to report."

"Thank you Tango," The large man said, "However, you said more help has been enlisted, could please enlighten us to who they are?"

"Ash Ketchum, Misty Waterflower and Brock Harrison," The voice replied. There was a reaction to this news. Giovanni cracked his knuckles, J growled and clenched the arms of her chair. Echo's unbroken stern face twitched slightly, and Zyrun looked up slightly.

"Thank you Tango, Keep up the good work, Alpha out," and he hung up. An uproar followed.

"What the hell are they doing in the picture?" Giovanni yelled, causing everyone to sink low in their chairs, "Those three took my organisation to the brink of extermination, and I hear they were the ones who caused the downfalls of the other organisations around the world. Now they're involved, we're screwed! Alpha, I warned you about this!"

"I can see you frustration in this plan Giovanni," Alpha replied coolly, his loud voice somehow managing to drown out Giovanni's angry one, "However, he will be needed at a later time. It is best if he joins now to speed up the process then us having to drag him out."

"But still," J piped up, "The little bastard destroyed my ship!" Alpha raised an Eyebrow.

"No he didn't, it was the Lake Guardians, and since when was it your ship? Since you went AWOL on us all those years ago?" J just growled at this reply and ground her teeth.

"Now, does anyone else have any other out rages they wish to voice?" Alpha asked. The room was silent, "Good, now we can move onto the next phase of the plan,"

"Hang on," J piped up again, "Don't we need the Orbs before we can get to the next phase?"

"The next phase _is_ obtaining the Orbs," Alpha said with a smile, leaning back in his chair, "We just let the bait squad do it for us."

"You mean,"

"Yes, them," Alpha said with a sly smile, "Alex will never back down from a job, and his team will follow him into hell and back. Also, with the troublesome trio joining him, it should be almost double the speed of them finding the Orbs."

"So, when will Alex drop them off to you?" Echo asked in a gruff, gravelly voice,

"Oh, he won't," Alpha said, "We will collect them from him, after J and your teams have obtained the three that are in our custody, but more details on that later. For now, we must discuss defensive positions…"

The meeting continued for a good four hours. However, unknown to the occupants, there was a military satellite positioned above that certain base, listening into the conversation.

A young radar operator in a dark room, not too far from the very base he was listening into took off his headphones and wiped his brow. "Sir," He called out, "Suspicions have been confirmed, requesting permission to give the all clear to operation Backup."

"Negative Private," A low voice said from the shadows, "Let's see how well they can deal with this."


	14. Chapter 14

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Brock asked, raising an eyebrow. They were all gathered around the seven maps which were on the floor of the kitchen since it had the biggest floor space.

"Not really," Alex said with a sideward smile, "But you never know until you've tried." He held fresh lemon juice in one hand and a hair dryer in the other. Brandon came forwards and dipped a cotton wool bud into the juice, and started to wipe it on the faded maps.

"Careful," Brock muttered, "That's history you're painting lemon juice over."

"I know," Alex said, "Trying to focus here." The whole room seemed to hold its breath. "Here goes nothing," Alex muttered, turning on the hair dryer and blowing over the swabbed area.

Everyone gasped. Brown lines began to show up as soon as the hot air hit the lemon juice, reacting with the worn ink.

"Everyone grab some juice and start swabbing the others," Alex called out, "And be careful about it!"

Soon, all the maps had been plastered in lemon juice and been heated, so in front of the group now were seven maps of the Great War.

"Notice the missing areas on some of the maps," Tara said form behind Alex, "I bet if we place the sheets on top of one another, it will lead to a fully complete map." Alex quickly knelt down and placed them all on top of one another and held them all up to the light. Sure enough, with all of them together, there was a complete map of…

"The entire country…" Joey gasped.

"With the locations of each Orb shrine," Alex said suddenly. Everyone looked at him.

"How can you tell that?" Ash asked, Pikachu giving Alex a quizzical look.

"Look at where the main cities of the individual Armies are based. Normally in ancient history, Cities were built on areas of great strategic value or importance; a meander in a river for instance, or a natural Harbour, or over a sacred artefact," Alex explained. Soon, everyone could see what he meant. There were Six cities drawn onto the map; One in Kanto, One in Johto, Two in Hoenn and two in Sinnoh.

"Hang on," Misty spoke up suddenly, "There are seven maps, does that mean there was a seventh army?"

"Yes there was," Brandon answered, "It was a small army, not really known that well, and pretty much forgotten by history."

"But there must be legends surrounding it," Ash spoke up, tearing his eyes from the map.

"Indeed there are," Brock said, looking around at Brandon, "However, everyone seems as unlikely as the next."

"There are many legends surrounding the war," Brandon continued, "Like Sir Arron and his Lucario,"

"That's fact," Ash butted in, "I met his Lucario a little while ago, when I was challenging the battle frontier."

"There was also the legend of the Legend Tamers, The Seventh Army of Life, and the Seventh Army of Godly Power. Hell, there is even a myth about the true reason for the war."

"What is the true reason?" Joey piped up.

"Well, no one really knows," Brock began, "Most now agree each territory was trying to expand into another, and so it was a free for all. However, there were several other theories, involving such ones as that the armies used legendaries to try and wipe the weaker ones out, the fact that they were trying to prevent the other from taking their prize Orbs and using it against them. This is where the absurd theory for the seventh Army comes in."

"And what Theory is this?" Alex asked, taking down the maps, his arms aching from holding them up for too long.

"The theory that the seventh army was after all six orbs to obtain a seventh, more powerful orb," Brandon and Brock said together, "They managed to obtain all six, which caused the Great War as the other factions decided the other had stolen their orbs. But in the end, the truth came to light and the six factions united against the seventh, and in an effort to prevent it again, they placed the orbs together in two regions, both furthest North and South."

"That's a lot more different then what I was taught," Joey said, scratching his head. His Quilarva climbed onto his shoulder and nuzzled his check slightly.

"Yes, it is," Alex said, "I'm assuming because the theory was rejected for being too absurd."

"Correct once again," Brock said, "Maybe I'm glad you took these from the museum and put them to good use, rather than just letting them rot and gather dust."

"Not to rain on anyone's parade, but," Tara piped up, "Did anyone take note of where the shrines are?"

"Oh damn it; no I didn't" Alex cursed, "Brock, could you hold this up to the light whilst I jot the co-ordinates down?"

Suddenly Lucario burst into the room, skidding on the stone floor and stopping in front of Alex. He started waving at Alex to try and get his attention.

"What is it buddy?" Alex asked, wondering why Lucario was trying to get his attention. Lucario was grunting too fast for him to figure out what he was trying to say, "Woah, slow down Lucario."

Lucario gave him a short stare before closing his eyes and Alex felt a quick surge of power flow from his hands to his brain, where in his minds eye he saw a shadow heading towards the house.

"So, he's returned again?" Alex asked. Lucario nodded and sprinted out of the room.

"Who's returned Alex?" Ash asked,

"An old friend," Alex smiled.

Alex was sprinting to the middle of the clearing, his team hot on his heels, along with Joey, Ash and Pikachu. He stopped when he hit the centre, and looked around himself curiously.

"No sudden movements," He muttered to everyone, "and keep a look out, you all know how he will act." Alex's Pokémon nodded.

"What?" Ash and Joey said together. Alex ignored them and continued looking. Several minutes passed, with only the autumn wind moving the leaves on the trees and the ground. Suddenly he spotted it.

"There!" He shouted, pointing to a black shadow speeding towards his left side, "Metagross, Hammer Arm!"

Metagross roared as it leapt into the air. Ash gasped at the sight of the huge metal Pokémon leaping effortlessly into the air, its two front legs glowing. It landed heavily in front of the speeding shadow, using the fall to drive its front legs onto it. The ground shock with the impact, and several large chunks of ground were displaced into the air.

There was a loud cry and a back figure shot into the air from the ground. Ash looked at it for a long time, trying to figure out what it was.

"Alright, Lucario, force palm," Alex called, and Lucario darted forwards, pushing off Metagross' body. It shot into the air and its palm made contact with the figure, causing a small flash of light and a small explosion to occur. The black figure fell to the ground, and Lucario landed on one knee behind it, head bowed.

"Alright Darkrai," Alex called, "Play time is over." Ash gawked. _Darkrai? _He thought, _I thought there was only one!_

"Okay," a gravelly voice rose from the shadow, "No more games." The Dark Pokémon pushed itself up and floated in the air, extending its two thin legs so it could stand.

"I haven't seen you around here for a while," Alex said, "Why have you come back recently?"

"Wow!" Ash couldn't hold it in any longer, "Is that really you Darkrai?"

"Yes it is," Drakrai replied, looking over at Ash with its ice cold blue eyes, "Ash isn't it?"

"Glad you remembered," Ash said excitedly. Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and ran up to Darkrai and waved its arms at it in a friendly greeting.

"Is that the shadow I've been seeing around the clearing?" Joey asked from behind Alex,

"Yep, it sure is," Alex said, "Everyone, this is Darkrai, he's my ears for the Pokémon world."

"Your ears?" Ash asked

"I like to keep on top of the news, both Human and Pokémon," Alex explained, "Darkrai here keeps an ear out for me and reports back to me, like I'm assuming you're doing now."

"Yes I am," Darkrai growled, "I have come to tell you the great beasts have begun to stir. There is a change in the flow of power, and it's increasing in strength. The others have picked up on it too."

"Great, this is what I need right now Darkrai, more riddles," Alex sighed, "Do you know why?"

"Even we do not know," Darkrai muttered, his blue gaze never leaving Alex's face.

"Great, now I know the legendaries are on the wake up alert, this is going to make the job even better," he said with sourness in his voice.

"Urm, what does Darkrai mean?" Ash asked, scratching his head.

"Basically the beasts of time, space, anti matter, sea, land and sky are starting to wake up, and will soon be roaming the world, for better or worse," Alex turned to face him, "Personally I think it's going to be for worse."

"Why do you say that?" Joey asked

"Because, Pokémon can sense disaster a mile away," Alex said, turning back to Darkrai, "And this is no exception, I'll bet my life on it."


	15. Chapter 15

"Alright," Alex said, clapping his hands, waiting for everyone to quieten down. They were in the lounge area; Ash, Joey, Misty, Brock, Tara and Brandon sat on the leather seats, whilst everyone's Pokémon stood or sat round the rest of the room. Lucario still stood by Alex's side, its eyes closed but it was still listening intently, "We have been informed of something that means we are going to have to pick up the pace."

"How are we going to do that?" Tara asked, "We still don't know the final resting places of these Orbs."

"We don't, no," Alex said, "But they do," Alex pointed at Ash and Brock.

"We do?" Ash asked, his face looking puzzled,

"Yes, it was over the news," Alex sighed as Ash still drew a blank face, "Still slow on the up-take hey? Fine, don't you remember the battle between the sea and the land, where one of the orbs fused with Pikachu?"

Suddenly Ash's eyes sparkled, "Oh yeah! That event! They took the orbs away to a secure location in Hoenn. It could be at the museum in Petelburg City, I think."

"Brilliant, we'll start there," Alex said. He turned to the others. "I will need you lot to go to each individual shrine. Brandon, you raise Falcon. He can get you there in no time, and I don't think your skills can quiet match his yet." Brandon nodded. The others looked confused however.

"Right, Ash and Brock, you're with me," Alex said, a plan forming in his mind, "We'll go retrieve the orbs since you have had experience with them before. Brandon, Misty, Tara and Joey, you guys go to the shrines; find out all there is to know from them. Brandon, you take Ghost-rider, and I'll take the Noisy Bird. Time has started to slip away people; we need those Orbs before the Legends wake up."

The Cold November Air blew into the large Barn house next to the log cabin. There was nothing really different about this one. There was hay everywhere, and nests where the Pokémon had made their beds for the night. There were also stacks of food supplies, an old generator and a locked wardrobe sitting in the corner. It was the two objects in the middle that were out of place.

There were two sheets covering two rather large and long objects, and as Alex and Brandon pulled the sheets off, everyone gasped. There were two Black Hawk Helicopters, however, both were slightly different; One hand Radar absorbent Black paint on it, the other was a cold metallic grey, however this one was slightly sleeker than the other one, and it was also bristling it guns, missile pods, search light, and several depth charges. The black one just had the regular mini gun turrets.

"Alright, we'll get the Ghost-rider out first," Alex said, un-clamping the wheels of the black helicopter from the floor. After a good twenty minutes with the help of everyone, and some psychic abilities, the helicopter sat in the clearing, the props folded out, ready to go. Brandon climbed into the Pilots seat, whilst Misty, Joey and Tara climbed into the back, shutting an added sliding door behind them to retain maximum stealth. Brandon Gave the thumbs up, and spoke into his mike

"_We'll keep you up to date,_"

"Alright Brandon," Alex said, "Get to Falcon first, and then get him to take you where ever you need to go." He pulled out his sunglasses and wiped the lens. The HUD display inside them turned on, and soon he had turned them into the radio frequency. He placed them on his eyes, and a mike extended from a leg, and an ear piece from the other, "Alright, I've swapped to mobility radio, keep in touch."

"_Will do,_" Brandon said, and with a small two finger salute from Alex, the Ghost-rider took off, heading east toward the rest of the Kanto area.

"Alright guys," Alex said, turning to Ash and Brock, "Make sure all Pokémon are secure and grab something to eat, it's going to be a long flight."

The Helicopter thundered over the Ocean, kicking up spray in its wake. Ash and Brock grimaced as the salty water flew around the back area through the open doors. Pikachu had taken the smart idea of hiding under Ash's hat to prevent itself from getting too wet. Alex was at the controls, one hand on the control Stick, keeping it pushed forward slightly, the other flicking a few switches here and there. Lucario sat in the Co-pilots seat, deep in meditation.

"Hey, Alex," Ash yelled above the noise of the rotor blades, "Why can't we go any higher? I'm getting soaked here!" Alex looked around at Ash and smiled sadly.

"I would go higher if I could," He yelled back, "But if we go any higher, we'll be on radar, and I don't want that at the moment."

"Oh, Okay," Ash yelled, looking out of the front window. "What's that?" He yelled suddenly, pointing out of the window at a small cluster of ships.

"I'm not sure," Alex yelled as the helicopter came closer, "But I believe that it's a Territory Army Task Force out on Practice Patrol. See the flags they're flying? Not the Standard Navy Flags."

"Cool!" Ash called back. Pikachu popped its head out of the shelter of his hat. "How you doing buddy?" Ash yelled. Pikachu shook his head against the spray still flying about, and went back under his hat.

"We're going to fly past the ships soon," Alex yelled, "Should be coming up on the left side if you want a quick look." Sure enough, the large grey ships that looked like tankers loomed past the helicopter. Ash had never seen the Territory Army ships before.

"What type are they?" He yelled to Alex.

"Transport," Alex called back, "See the detachable hulls and loading ramps at the back? They can carry a whole task force across, plus some heavy amour and a few packed up aircraft."

"Wow, they are big," Brock joined in.

"Yep, don't know what they're doing out here though," Alex questioned it in his head. _What ARE they doing out here?_

"How long till we reach Hoenn again?" Brock yelled, his clothes starting to stiffen due to the salty water.

"One hour tops now," Alex called over his shoulder, "We should be able to see the land mass soon enough." And with that, the Helicopter thundered on through the Blue sky.

"Sir, the target squad have just passed the Starboard Bow in a Black Hawk."

"So, the Lone Wolf is picking up his speed," Echo Muttered to himself, "Continue on course at full speed. DO not engage the target, I repeat, do not engage the target. We will have plenty of time to deal with them later."

The Helicopter roared over Petelburg city, causing many of the inhabitants to look up at the bristling Black Hawk. Alex had contacted the Champion of the area on the way to let him know what was going on; he didn't fancy trying to steal orbs under anyone else's nose too soon. He found the Cities Park, and landed in the middle of the grass. He powered down the rotors almost as soon as the wheels hit the dirt.

"Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," Alex said to Ash and Brock, "I hope you have enjoyed your flight, and should you fly with Nosy Bird again, please remember to pack some spare clothes." He added, noticing Ash and Brock glaring at him in salty water drenched clothes, their hair drenched. Pikachu was perfectly dry, and smiling, eager for action.

They exited the helicopter, and Alex let out Swampert to keep guard of it. No sooner had they walked a few steps, they were confronted by a rather tall man with grey hair and eyes.

"I got your message," a cold voice said, "And I thought I better come and see the commotion for myself."

"Well, Steven Stone," Alex said politely, but the coldness in his voice wasn't hard to miss, "I thought it would be polite to let you know I was to be operating in your own back yard before I began."

"This is new of you Alex," Steven raised an Eyebrow, "You've never shown this sort of politeness before, normally you just barge in."

"Well, the world is at stake, so making some alliances wouldn't be a bad idea," Alex replied coolly.

"What do you want Alex?"

"I want the Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald Orbs."

"No can do."

"Really, and why is that?"

"Because my orders come from a higher chain of Command," He said, waving some paper in Alex's face, "Unlike you Alex, I must follow Orders to the Letter."

Ash and Brock stood back and observed this interaction with interest.

"Why are they being so cold to each other?" Ash asked Brock in a voice which only he could hear.

"I'm assuming it's something to do with Alex being a Freelancer, and Steven being a Champion," Brock muttered back, "Alex works outside the chain of command, with no true laws for him to abide by, whilst Steven must follow commands from the Master Council."

"Master Council?" Ash asked, turning to face Brock

"It's a Council of those who have held the Champion Title for a set number of years. They operate with the Law, Government and Military to make the world a safer and better place," Steven said from behind Brock. Ash and Brock snapped around to see him smiling at them. Alex and Lucario stood behind it, their faces un-readable, "So, how are you two doing?"

"Two minutes till target is in range,"

"Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Foxtrot, please confirm radio frequencies,"

"_This is Alpha unit, confirming frequency,_"

"_Bravo Unit, Confirming frequency,_"

"_Charlie Unit, Confirming frequency,_"

"_Delta Unit, Confirming frequency,_"

"_Foxtrot Unit, confirming frequency,_"

"Frequencies confirmed,"

"All units stand by, One minute till target,"

"Echo Unit, One minute till Target,"

"_This is Magpie, our blades are up and running,_"

"_Gentlemen, this is Echo. I want this to be a quick and clean mission. No hostages, Stun Ammo only. We are here to retrieve the packages only. Good luck Gentlemen._"

"We have docked. Operation Hoard is a go in Three… Two… one…"

"Operation Hoard is a go. Open the doors; we have a city to invade."


	16. Chapter 16

"So, you can't give us the Orbs?" Ash asked, disappointed. Steven shook his head sadly.

"I honestly wish it was different, but due to _his_ track record, I can't release it to anyone," Steven replied, "You might want to ask Alex here why he wants them so badly."

Alex looked up at Brock and Ash in the eye. "It's for this… person who claims he'll put the six Orbs out of human interest for a long time." Ash and Brock did not break eye contact at any point during this.

"See why I can't release it to him," Steven said, "It's because he's hunting a bounty,"

"I haven't finished yet," Alex said coolly, throwing Steven off guard, "There is a new reason that has arisen to why we must find these orbs."

"Go on," Steven said, raising an eyebrow. Alex rolled his eyes and beckoned them back to the helicopter. He pulled out several photos that Brandon had taken of the Cave in Johto.

"See these," Alex said, showing the images of the hand prints, "This a ritual; one that was left by the ancients during the great war, and this," He showed a picture of what looked like the replica of the map but it was in the eerie blue light as the rest of the photos, "This is basically the same map as the great war, but look at the difference." Steven, Ash and Brock all leant forward to take a look.

"There are only two territories." Steven mumbled.

"Exactly," Alex said, "Now, look at the boundries, where do they lie?"

"One is of all reagions," Ash said, scanning the photo, "and the other is of these, dots down there?" He pointed to a cluster of islands south of the land masses.

"Exactly, pointing evidence toward the Seventh Army theory," Alex said, "And what was the theory of the seventh army?"

"The collection of the six orbs to produce a seventh to summon a so called "Godlike" Pokémon," Brock answered, stroking his chin, deep I thought, "But how does this call a reason for you to have a second reason to go after these?"

"Some friends of mine," Alex said, with a sheepish smile on his face, "Have been helping me track several underground criminal organisations for a while. I've been trying to take them down for ages. Anyway, the thing is that we've noticed something in common with them; they've all started talking to one another."

"How is that suspicious?" Steven asked, crossing his arms, "Criminal gangs do it all the time."

"Not when they haven't done so for the past four years, then suddenly the chatter between them shoots through the roof," Alex replied, "They used to be at each other's throats, and now they are co-ordinating with one another."

"And what is your theory to that?"

"There is a head man," Alex said, looking up at the others, "Someone is controlling them; sliding them the money, giving them the Intel, selling them the weapons etc."

"And this links in how?"

"Recently, we've noticed an increased chat about the 'Alpha Pokémon' between the three Organisations," Alex said, taking a deep breath, "The three involved are Team Rocket, the Pokémon Hunters and the Shadows. They are all experts on what they do, collecting, hunting and getting the job done. They are all in on this, but we don't know why. That was why I had to break into the research facility several months ago," He looked at Steven, "You may not believe me, but we pretty much answer to the same people. They sent me to retrieve the Data on the Orbs, and the reason why they sent me was because there is evidence they have way too many moles in HQ. I was working with a branch of theirs, and so I was latched onto this operation.

"Then I was taken by a Team Legion I think they called themselves, and was made an offer to gather the six orbs. I was going to go through with it, as then the six orbs would be together, and then the extraction team could be called, pull them out along with me, and then the Orbs would be held at HQ under lock and key. However, an Informant of mine has told me that the Legendaries have began to awaken, slowly. Now look at this, and read it," Alex threw another photo at Steven and he caught it. He looked down and began to read. His eyes widened slightly and looked up at Alex.

"It's a prophecy of the Uprising," He said, looking straight into Alex's eyes. Ash and Brock were still looking puzzled.

"Indeed, we've known about it for ages, but we always thought it would be a myth, until we found this a few months ago."

"So that's why they want the six legendaries," Steven said, his mind putting together the pieces.

"Correction," Alex said, "They want the six orbs to create the Seventh, as stated in the second half. That's why we must get those orbs, to counter this prophecy."

"But I still have my orders," Steven said, thrusting the photo back at Alex, "The Council needs more than a theory for them to change their minds."

"I have my orders too," Alex said, pulling out an envelope out of a pocket in his brown jacket, passing it over to Steven, "I seriously think they out-rule yours."

Steven snorted as he took the envelope, and opened it, reading the letter inside. His face fell to a look of shock.

"What does it say?" Ash muttered to Alex, but Alex remained silent, staring at Steven.

"You win," Steven said, handing back the paper, and then to Ash and Brock's amazement, he fell into attention and saluted Alex.

"At ease Steven, I don't like people doing that," Alex said, taking the letter from Steven and putting it back in his pocket. Steven stood at ease.

"What is going on?" Brock asked, "I thought we were here to get some orbs and break some stuff, not play hierarchy."

"Alex, why did he salute you?" Ash asked Alex. Alex turned and smiled at Ash.

"Well, you see…" He stopped mid sentence as radio static cut into his earpiece. Suddenly a voice came over the line.

"_Slateport Police… Assistance Required… Fuck! They're everywhere… Too many of them… Shit, there are more of them in the boats… Pokémon unable to hold them off…_" and the transmition was cut off. Alex quickly turned to Steven

"Where are the orbs?" he said quietly, but the seriousness in his voice even caused Lucario to look at him.

"In Slateport Museum," Steven said. Alex hauled himself into the Helicopter and hit the start up button. He returned Swapert and held out his hand to the others.

"We need to go, now," Alex said, the blades starting to pick up speed above his head. He pulled up Ash and Brock, and then Steven. Lucario jumped in and went to the co-pilot seat, his Aura starting to show on his paws.

"What is going on Alex?" Steven yelled above the rotor blades.

"Slateport is under attack," Alex yelled back, ignoring the shocked faces, "I think they're after the orbs. We have to get there and get them before they do."

"Why can't we just push them out?" Ash yelled as Alex jumped into the Pilots seat and pulled the helicopter up into the sky.

"Because it's the TA invading," Alex roared back, and gunned the Helicopter low over the buildings.


	17. Chapter 17

"Oi, Falcon," Brandon yelled, hammering the wooden door with his fist, "Lone Wolf calls for you."

Misty, Tara, Joey and Brandon were all standing outside a lone hut in the middle of the Viridian Forest. It was early afternoon, and the heat was starting to get to them.

"Come on Falcon," Brandon roared as he hammered the door again, "Or I'll be forced to break it down." There was no reply.

"Alright all, stand back," Brandon said, pulling out a Pokeball and releasing it, "Dragonite! Take down on the door, stat!"

The wooden door didn't stand a chance as the dragon Pokémon smashed through it, sending splinters everywhere. Brandon ran into the room, and looked around. It was just as messy as it always was, newspapers, cans and bottles everywhere, clothes on the floor and paper with mathematics and ancient symbols posted all over the walls. Brandon moved into the room slowly, Dragonite just as alert. Noctowl fluttered in and onto Brandon's shoulder, looking around the room.

"Damn it Falcon!" Brandon said, walking up to a hunched up figure in the corner, "How many times have I told you not to drink too much of that stuff?" Brandon pulled the man to his feet, pulling away a half empty bottle of Jagermiester from his grasp. He pulled the man out of the hut and into the sun light.

"Argh, my head," the man moaned through his beard, "dude, just put me down!" Brandon ignored these protests and walked him over to the nearby stream, where he dropped him with a large splash.

"That should wake you up," Brandon said, looking down at the man. He was of thin build with brown hair which was pulled into a ponytail at the back, a brown beard, and a set of brown eyes behind some really thick and large square glasses, "How many times Falcon, do Alex and I tell you not to drink that much?"

Falcon shook his head and stood up, "Whatever man," he muttered, looking about himself, "And what can I do for you today?"

"You could be our pilot," Brandon said, "Take us to a few destinations around these regions."

"And what is in it for me?" Falcon asked, studying Brandon's face.

"For one, you get to pilot the Ghost-rider," Brandon said, and Falcon's eyes narrowed in suspicion,

"And what's the other thing?" Falcon asked, aware it was probably going to be something he wasn't going to enjoy.

"The second thing is that we get to show you the locations of those temples you've been hunting for after all these years," Brandon said, smiling slightly. Falcon just stared at him.

"You mean, the six temples of the Orbs?" He whispered.

"Those exact ones," Brandon replied, "So, you going to help us out or not?"

"Are you kidding me man?" Falcon said, starting to laugh, "I'm in!" and he ran back to the house.

"What was that all about?" Tara asked as she walked over to Brandon.

"He just needed to have his head screwed on right," Brandon said, smiling, "Come on, let's get back to the chopper."

"SO the first one is here right?" Falcon yelled over his shoulder as he banked and weaved the helicopter between the rock formations that poked up from the valley floor. Joey and Brandon looked out of the windows, silently thanking the fact they had a helicopter, and weren't having to fight their way through the thick forest down bellow.

"That's right," Tara yelled to Falcon, "These are the exact coordinates."

"Which Shrine is this?" Misty yelled to Brandon.

"This should be the Shrine to Land, thus the magnificent landscape surrounding this place," Brandon called back, "Alright Falcon, set her down somewhere and wait with ghost rider until we give the all clear,"

"Gottcha man!" Falcon yelled and lowered the Helicopter toward the tree line, leaves and branches kicking up due to the downdraft of the rotor blades. The helicopter soon touched down in a very small opening between the trees, and the four jumped out, Brandon's Noctowl taking to the nearest tree and Joey's Quilarva taking an alert stance in front of them.

"Alright people," Tara called, "it should be this way!" and she moved away from the helicopter. The others followed, keeping low due to the downdraft still causing things to fly around. Soon they were out of the range of the downdraft and they slowed down to a walking pace. The forest wasn't as dense as they thought, with just some ferns, a few bushes and mainly grass growing between the trunks.

"Hmm, that's funny," Misty said, "I thought there would be a lot more plant life down here."

"It could be poor soil nutrition," Joey replied, "with these trees being the only things that can really grow in this soil."

"Maybe," Brandon said, leading the group with Tara bent over her GPS, "But I think it has something to do with being close to the temple."

"Well, this is the spot," Tara said, stopping suddenly and looking up, "But I see no temple."

All there was in front of them was more forest. Joey kicked the ground, Misty sat on a tree trunk, Tara bent over her GPS again, checking to see if it was working properly, whilst Brandon just thought.

"It's properly hidden," Brandon said, "I mean think about it. You are not going to build a temple holding your most treasured position in full view of the enemy are you?" He walked forward, looking around him. "Hello there," Brandon said, stopping suddenly.

"What is it?" The others said in unison. Brandon smiled to himself.

"Right, what is surrounding this area?" Brandon asked. They all looked around.

"Trees," Tara said, shrugging

"Grass," Misty said

"Ferns," Joey replied.

"Right, now, what do you see behind me?"

"Another fern," Tara said, raising an eyebrow, "What is the point Brandon?"

"I'm getting there," Brandon said, silencing Tara with a look, "Now, what is different about this fern?"

"It's nowhere near the others," Joey said, "But that is possible right?"

"Indeed it is Joey," Brandon said, "But, look at the ferns, and look at how they have grown."

Joey and Misty looked at the Ferns. From this angle they looked like ordinary Ferns.

"I don't see anything," Misty concluded. Brandon sighed.

"Noctowl, I need an aerial photo of these ferns, timer set to ten seconds," Brandon called out as he threw his camera into the air. Noctowl caught it and held it so the lens faced down onto the ferns. Soon after the shot was taken, Noctowl dropped it back into Brandon's awaiting hands. He pulled up the image and showed it to Misty, Joey and Tara. "See the pattern now?"

From the view above, it could be seen that they grew in a pattern similar to that on Groudon. The others gasped.

"Now, how do we get in it?" Tara asked, looking back at the Ferns.

"Simple," Brandon said, walking over to them, "Like this." And he jumped into the middle of the patch, and disappeared from view.

"Brandon!" Joey yelled, rushing over to see a small concealed hole in the ground, with Brandon's hair just visible bellow the ground level.

"We're going to have to crouch in here," Brando said, looking up, "Seems the ancients were smaller than we are."


	18. Chapter 18

"Slateport Police Department, this is Nosybird," Alex was saying into the helicopter radio, "Slateport, do you read us?" The helicopter was thundering towards the city which was just in sight, with smoke rising from it in several places. It did not look good.

"Steven, I'm getting nothing on the radio," Alex yelled over his shoulder. In the passenger hold, Steven was busy talking into a mobile, "On it Alex," He yelled back, "Steven Stone, we have a situation at Slateport. There is an invasion of unkown size happening. Are there any TA operations going on in the area?"

Ash, Brock and Pikachu were sat opposite, looking out of the side doors, watching the smoke rising from the buildings, face set with grim determination. Alex had already briefed them on the plan. They were going to go in, with cover fire from the Pokémon, grab the orbs and get back in the air, providing cover for the citizens until back up arrived.

"Bad news," Steven yelled as he put his phone down, "According to the TA, there are no operations going on in the area, and there are no units in the area to assist for another hour or so."

"Shit!" Alex yelled, "What the fuck are they doing? Doesn't matter. Steven, can you try and raise the Police de-"

"_This is Slateport Police Department, is there anyone out there?_" a female voice came over the radio.

"Officer Jenny!" Ash yelled out loud, and Alex took over the radio.

"Officer Jenny, this is Nosy Bird, we are two minutes off entering the city, we are arriving from the north, please advise on enemy positions," Alex called down the radio.

"_Alex? Is that you? Thank god someone heard us!_" Officer Jenny sounded slightly relieved at the sound of Alex's voice, "_They are everywhere, and they are armed. They just came off the ships so fast, so precise, we had no idea what to do!_"

"What have you done?" Alex asked, as the Helicopter arrived at the suburbs.

"_We've managed to get a form of defence together, mostly the police department and a few Pokémon trainers and the gym leader, but we're being pushed back, and fast. They don't have any Pokémon with them at all, they're just firing these strange bullets that seem to stun rather than kill._"

"They're TA," Alex said, "They're heading towards the museum. Try and hold them off as long as possible. I'll be dropping off Steven Stone and Brock Harrison at your position,"

"_Steven Stone? The Champion?_"

"Yes," Steven took over the radio, allowing Alex to handle the helicopter between the buildings, over the heads of fleeing citizens, "What position are you? We will help with the defence."

"I thought we were going to just grab the orbs and get out of here?" Ash yelled

"Yes we are," Alex yelled, "But first, I want to even the scores slightly, give us a better chance, because I recon they'll be at the museum in about ten minutes. We have to slow them down."

"Alex, they're just around this corner," Steven called, and Alex banked the helicopter so sharply to slow down to a halt and turn that everyone had to hold onto something to prevent them slipping out of the doors. He flew low over a sandbag barricade, which behind it were a large number of people, all commanding Pokémon attacks down the street.

"Okay, this will be a touch and go," Alex yelled as he lowered the Helicopter out of the sky and in front of the barricade, "Get out on the barricade side, I'll use Nosy Bird as a bullet shield, just get out and behind the barricades ASAP. On my mark," Alex yelled as the down draft began to blow up dust from the streets, "Three… two… one… GO, GO, GO!" Alex yelled as the wheels hit the ground. Steven and Brock leapt out of the door, whilst Ash lay flat on the floor, covering Pikachu with his body and the whizzing sound of bullets started to sound through the passenger area. He had to wait until Brock and Steven were behind the barricade until he took off.

Suddenly there was a rattling sound as his side of the windscreen came covered in an orange glittery powder. "Shit, we have to go," Alex yelled, and hopping that the two had made it over the wall, he took off, pulling the helicopter up and facing down the street. "You Okay back there Ash?"

"You bet," Ash replied, picking himself up off the floor, "What's that powder on your window? It looks like stun spore."

"It is," Alex called back, using the wipers to move it off his field of vision, "It's Stun ammo. Basically Stun spore packet into a shape of a bullet so it's travel through the air, but when it hits something, it will disintegrate on contact, but the dust will cause the target to become paralyzed. It doesn't play well with engines either, that's why we had to go."

"Where we heading now?" Ash yelled

"The Docks," Alex looked forward, powering the helicopter forward, "Get the Pokémon out Ash, this is going to get messy."

"Sir, we have incoming helicopter,"

"Permission to engage the incoming target?"

"_Mother Ship, this is Echo, Engage incoming hostile, it is the target squad, I repeat, it's the target squad._"

"Magpie, this is Mother Ship, we have some hostiles we need you to crash and burn,"

"Alright guys," Alex called to Arcanine, Swapert, Charizard, Gallade and Lucario, "Do what Ash tells you to," The Pokémon nodded and moved so that Charizard, Swapert and Gallade were on one side, whilst Lucario and Arcanine were on the other. Ash and Pikachu were squashed at the far end in the middle.

"Alright guys," Ash called out, "Fire on incoming targets only. That is how I say it right?"

"Yes Ash, that is how you say it, now look sharp," Alex yelled as the Port came into view, "Things are going to get choppy."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, the tone of missile lock came on, and Alex saw two smoke trails from a transport ship flying towards them.

"Ash, Starboard side, incoming!" Alex yelled as he launched flares and spun the helicopter around so the right side was facing the missiles. Ash looked out and saw them incoming.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt them," Ash roared, "Arcanine, Flamethrower!" The two Pokémon obeyed and hit the missiles head on with a lance of lightning and a stream of fire.

The missiles exploded on impact with the attacks, and Alex pulled the helicopter back around and continued heading towards the docks.

"How you planning to buy some time?" Ash yelled to Alex. Alex pulled a smile and turned around to face Ash.

"You ever been on a rollercoaster?" Alex asked Ash

"Urm, yeah, I have"

"Well, the next few minutes are going be a lot like that; except it's probably going to be safer than that. And more explosion filled."

"Wha…" Ash began, but he never finished his question. Alex banked the helicopter widely to the right; so far right the floor was almost 90 degrees where it should be, all the Pokémon hanging on as the helicopter began to drop in altitude.

Alex soon pulled the helicopter round and levelled out, just that now the nose was point directly and the ground. Ash could feel himself falling towards the cockpit area, and held on to the nearest canvas seat, something which the rest of the Pokémon had learnt to do early on.

"Alright you bastards," Alex muttered to himself as the copter began to shudder violently and it decended rapidly, nose first, towards the Transport ship they had flown past earlier which was now docked in port, "Lets see how you handle a one gunship assult." And with that, He pulled the launch trigger.

"Sir, Target has opened fire on us,"

"Where the hell is Magpie? Surely they should have taken the SOB out?"

"Radar is down"

"Communication with landing team has been lost"

"Aircraft counter-measures offline, Landing door offline,"

The Commanding Officer stared dumbstruck at the bridge of the ship, looking out to see smoke rising from all over the deck bellow. Sirens sounded. Red lights flashed. Service personal were running back and forth, yelling out information that wasn't going to help him beat off the attack made by one helicopter.

All anti air were offline, and he had lost communication with Echo and his Landing force. He ducked as another explosion rocked the ship, this time from above the bridge. He looked up just in time to see another communications mast fall forward and smash into the deck. He grabbed the nearest radio operator

"Get me anything that will get me in contact with Raven or Echo," He yelled as another explosion rocked the ship. "Bloody hell! What has he fucked up now?"

"The Rudder sir" A voice from the back of the room yelled.

"Just great. Echo needs to perform plan b. Someone get me through to him. I don't care if it's by walkie talkie, mobile phone or a baby listener, just the message to him!"

"What the hell are you trying to achive?" Ash roared as Alex swing the helicopter for another flyby over the deck.

"Taking out critical systems," Alex replied, firing a few more missiles into the Deck, causing more defence systems to become nothing more than expensive shrapnel, "Slow down their departure a bit."

"_Alex!" _Brock's voice came over the radio, "_We can't hold them back much longer! We've been pushed back to the last block before the museam. We need back up, now!_"

"Alright Brock, ETA one minute."

"_Going to be one hell of a long minute,_" Brock replied. "_Brock out._"

"Alright," Alex yelled as he pealed the Helicopter away from the docks, "Ash, Pokémon, The plan is simple. I touch down, you all scatter. Charazard, Gallade, Arcanine and Ash, you all assist with the defence. Lucario, you will assist me with getting the orbs. All Agreed?"

The others nodded. "Good," Alex yelled. "Right, Touch down behind the museum in three… two… one…" The Helicopter touched down behind the large old looking museum, "Go!" Alex yelled as he killed the engines and jumped out of the helicopter. The Group sprinted to the front of the museum, to see the defence had been pushed back to the front steps that lead to the entrance through several pillars.

Alex and Ash sprinted up the blockade made by some police cars, a large goods lorry and a few sandbags. Pokémon and People were sheltering behind the barricade, trying not to get hit by the stun bullets which were flying from six streets in front of the museum. Alex soon spotted Brock and Steven huddled behind one of the squad cars, commanding some Pokémon to aim down the streets.

"We're here," Alex yelled as he dived next to them, "How long do you recon you can hold them off?"

"Not long," Steven replied, covering his head as a hailstorm of stun bullets shattered overhead, covering them with sun spore powder, "What ever you were going to do, do it now."

"Right," Alex turned to Charizard, "Alright Buddy, Take to the air, open another front in the fight. Arcanine, Stay here and cover the defence. Gallade, you stay on the top of the steps. Guard the entrance. Ash," He turned the raven haired teen, "Do what you normally do."

"What, sacrifice myself to save the world?"

"Not yet!" Alex yelled as he sprinted up the steps with Lucario, "Do what you normally do in heated battles!"

"Oh, right. Gottcha now!"


End file.
